Figure 1.

Graphical representation of the selection process of the EPIC-Heidelberg case-cohort and the study participants. The case-cohort was composed of all cases of cardiovascular diseases, 4 major cancers (lung, colorectal, prostate, and breast) and all deaths that occurred until end of 2014 and a subcohort (a representative sample of the EPIC-Heidelberg cohort). The subcohort was selected in 2 steps. A 10% random sample of all EPIC-Heidelberg participants (n = 2691) in the first step and further 10% sample of the participants who were older than 50 years at recruitment and not sampled in step 1 (n = 1103).