Table 2.

Potential of the LifeCycle Project-EU Child Cohort Network

Collaboration between prospective pregnancy/child cohort studies offers the opportunities to	1
Perform analyses in over 250,000 children and their parents
Harmonize methods for data collection, biobanks, management, and analyses
Perform analyses on published and unpublished data which limits publication bias
Perform individual participant data meta-analyses with better statistical precision
Stratify groups by geographical area or sex
Compare determinants and outcomes between European populations
Examine consequences of small variations in determinants from early life onwards
Identify variations in geography and time periods for specific associations
Infer causality from observed associations by advanced analytical approaches
Enable analyses on life course trajectories on risk factors of non-communicable diseases
Explore different life course models