The EPIC study in The Netherlands is based in two centres, Bilthoven and Utrecht. The population in the two cohorts has been recruited from two regions, from the general population (Bilthoven) and from those attending for breast cancer screening (Utrecht). Recruitment was carried out between 1993 and 1997. In 2006-2007, the two Dutch cohorts have been merged into one cohort (EPIC-NL LINK: www.epicnl.eu) to gain efficiency and sample size and to optimise the use of the data locally. The separate cohorts, however, will co-exist besides the merged cohort.

Bilthoven: In Bilthoven, EPIC is co-ordinated by the Centre for Nutrition and Health of the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment and called the MORGEN-EPIC cohort. MORGEN-EPIC is incorporated in the MORGEN study which was set up to monitor risk factors and chronic diseases of major public health importance in the Netherlands. The MORGEN study is a cross-sectional investigation of the prevalence of risk factors for chronic diseases using self-administered questionnaires and a physical examination in a randomly selected sample of the Dutch population aged 20 to 59 years in three towns in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Doetinchem, and Maastricht).

Utrecht: The Utrecht EPIC cohort is co-ordinated by the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and is called Prospect-EPIC. It recruited women aged 49 to 70 years from the breast cancer screening program in Utrecht and its neighbourhood.

All members of the EPIC-NL cohort are followed for changes in vital status and the occurrence of diseases by linkage with several registries. These include the Municipality registry for vital status, the Dutch National Cancer registry for occurrence of cancer, the Central Bureau of Statistics registry for causes of death and a National Hospital Discharge Diagnosis registry for occurrence of cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes. Changes in some exposure status are assessed by questionnaires during follow-up. Part of the MORGEN cohort (Doetinchem participants) is re-invited every 5 years for a physical examination in addition to questionnaire information. The following number of cases were identified by the end of 2005: