EPIC Centres

UNITED KINGDOM

  Background | Follow-up | Scientists | Funding  | Activities 

Background

EPIC-Oxford. The Oxford component of EPIC is a prospective cohort of 57 500 men and women recruited throughout the United Kingdom in 1993—2000. Recruitment was targeted to include as many vegetarians as possible, and approximately 50% of the participants do not eat meat. The main objective of the study is to examine how diet influences the risk of cancer, particularly for the most common types of cancer in Britain, as well as other chronic diseases.
http://www.epic-oxford.org/

EPIC-Norfolk. The EPIC-Norfolk cohort comprises 25 639 men and women resident in Norfolk, United Kingdom, first recruited in 1993—1997 from general practice age—sex registers. Extensive baseline information collected includes lifestyle, including diet and physical activity, socioeconomic status, personal and family history, anthropometry, and biological samples. The cohort participants have been followed up through mailed questionnaires, repeat visits, and record linkage. The EPIC-Norfolk study is coordinated from the University of Cambridge.
http://www.epic-norfolk.org.uk
  Males Females Number of participants Percentage of EPIC cohort
EPIC-Norfolk 13 698 16 743 30 441 5.84%
Oxford 13 219 44 227 57 446 11.02%
United Kingdom 26 917 60 970 87 887 16.86%

Follow-up

EPIC-Oxford. All participants are followed up by record linkage for incident cancers, hospital diagnoses, and causes of death.
Follow-up questionnaires have been completed at approximately 5, 10, and 15 years after recruitment.

EPIC-Norfolk. All participants in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort are followed up for mortality by cause through death certification, and for cancer incidence through cancer registration.
They are also followed up using mailed questionnaires and health record linkage.
Participants have been invited for clinic follow-up assessments in 1997—2000 and 2006—2011.

Scientists

EPIC-Oxford

Principal Investigator
Professor Tim Key
Deputy Director
Co-Investigator or Study Coordinator
Dr Ruth Travis
Molecular Epidemiologist
Database Manager
Paul Appleby
Senior Statistician
Nutritional Epidemiologist
Dr Aurora Perez-Cornago
Nutritional Epidemiologist
Nutritional Epidemiologist
Dr Tammy Tong
Nutritional Epidemiologist
Nutritional Epidemiologist
Dr Julie Schmidt
Nutritional Epidemiologist

EPIC-Norfolk

Principal Investigator
Professor Nick Wareham
Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit
Institute of Metabolic Science
University of Cambridge
Cambridge CB2 0QQ
Study Coordinator
Nicola Kimber
Database Managers
Abigail Britten


Conor McMenamin


Funding

EPIC-Oxford.

Financial support is provided by:
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Health and Safety Executive
  • Medical Research Council
  • European Union
  • Wellcome Trust

EPIC-Norfolk.

Financial support is provided by:
  • Medical Research Council UK

Research activities

EPIC-Oxford

  • Nutrition, hormones, and prostate cancer
  • Hormones and breast cancer
  • Long-term health of vegetarians
  • Shiftwork and chronic disease.

EPIC-Norfolk

  • Leads the EPIC-Diabetes working group and EPIC-InterAct
  • Genetic epidemiology of diabetes, obesity and related metabolic disorders
  • Research on measurement of diet and physical activity
  • Association of diet and physical activity with chronic disease outcomes
  • Determinants of diet and physical activity
  • See http://www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/