Table 1.

Unique opportunities for cohort research in low- and middle-income countries.

Area	Opportunities for research
Epidemiologic transition	•Many low- and middle-income countries currently have a dual burden of both infectious and chronic conditions as they move through the epidemiologic transition, providing a unique opportunity to study infectious and chronic disease interactions •Rapid economic development results in contrasting lifestyles; for example, overweight and obesity occur alongside underweight and stunting, allowing the study of both in one environment
Risk factors	•Unique patterns of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases such as hypertension, stroke, and cancer exist •Differing lifestyle, environmental, dietary and infectious risk factors have never been studied before •A better understanding of the exposure prevalence of these causal factors is needed
Genetic diversity	•Genetic susceptibility to infectious and chronic conditions varies considerably across population and ethnic groups. Scientific findings that are applicable to diverse populations are needed •Unparalleled opportunity to examine gene–gene and gene–environment interactions
Nested interventions	•Nested randomized interventions that are context-specific are needed •Multi-country intervention studies could provide insights relevant to high-income countries
Stimulate political will	•Demonstrating the prevalence of known risk factors such as smoking and alcohol use and the diseases they cause among low- and middle-income countries’ populations could stimulate political will to tackle them aggressively •Long-term studies afford training opportunities to attenuate or reverse brain drain