Longitudinal Urban Cohort Ageing Study

The LUCAS project was designed to increase knowledge in the area of functional decline and changing patterns of frailty and disability. Factors influencing these transitions and sojourn times are of particular interest both for prevention, i.e. to characterise different target groups for effective health-promotion and prevention programmes as well as health-care services planning. The major aims were:
  • To describe and document certain aspects of the ageing process, e.g. the transitions from robust to frail or disabled health status;
  • To find determinants of healthy ageing, based both on self-reported health information and preclinical and clinical markers obtained through medical examinations and comprehensive geriatric assessments in subsets of the cohort selected according to self-reported functional status;
  • To develop a functional ability index based on self-report suitable to screen functional competence in the heterogeneous population of senior citizens in the community setting and to test its prognostic validity;
  • To measure the long-term effects of a health-promotion and prevention intervention embedded in LUCAS wave 1 that showed favorable results at 1-year follow-up.

Overview

Acronym
LUCAS
Website
LUCAS
Investigators
Dr. Ulrike Dapp
Albertinen-Haus
Contacts
Dr. Ulrike Dapp
Albertinen-Haus

General Design

Study design
Cohort
Start - End Year
2000 -
General Information on Follow Up (profile, frequency)
LUCAS is an ongoing longitudinal cohort study. So far, participants were assessed six times (waves 1-6), in 2000-2002 (recruitment and wave 1), 2007/2008 (wave 2), 2009/2010 (wave 3), 2011/2012 (wave 4), 2013/2014 (wave 5) and 2015/2016 (wave 6). Wave 7 is planned for 2017/2018.
Recruitment Target
  • Individuals
Number of Participants
3,326
Supplementary information about number of participants
Wave 1: 3326 participants
Wave 2: 2403 participants
Wave 3: 1954 participants
Wave 4: 1703 participants
Wave 5: 1430 participants
Wave 6: 1131 participants

Access

Availability of data and biosamples

Possible Access to Data
Possible Access to Biosamples
Other

Marker Paper

Dapp U, Anders J, von Renteln-Kruse W, Golgert S, Meier-Baumgartner HP, Minder CE. The Longitudinal Urban Cohort Ageing Study (LUCAS): study protocol and participation in the first decade. BMC geriatrics, 2012; 12: 35.

PUBMED 22776679

Timeline

Population

LUCAS population

The population is composed of independently living community-dwelling persons, aged 60 years and older, without need of nursing care (German long-term care insurance) or cognitive impairment.

The participants were recruited from 21 general practitioner (GP) practices in Hamburg.

At wave 2, to compensate for the losses since baseline, the LUCAS cohort was supplemented by the eligible patients from an additional GP practice.

Selection Criteria

Minimum age
60
Countries
  • Germany
Territory
Hamburg
Health Status
  • At baseline, participants must not suffer from cognitive impairment or a terminal disease and not be in need of professional nursing care, or human assistance with daily activities.
Other Criteria
The GPs excluded those patients with (a) a need of human assistance with basic activities of daily living (ADL) or needing professional nursing care (according to the German long-term care insurance system); (b) cognitive impairment (equivalent to a Mini Mental Status score ≤24; (c) terminal disease; and/or (d) inability to understand German
Supplementary Information about selection criteria
Information on health in old age generated periodically in the LUCAS cohort is largely comparable with that from representative cross-sectional studies and statistics registries.

Sources of Recruitment

Specific Population
  • Clinic patients
Supplementary Information
General practitioners (GPs) from the metropolitan area of Hamburg were invited to participate via the newsletter of the regional GP association. Twenty-one GPs working in solo practices agreed to participate and were recruited. These GPs generated complete lists of all their patients aged 60 years and older. Eligible community-dwelling older people on the GPs' lists were invited to participate.

Sample Size

Number of Participants
3,326
Supplementary information about number of participants
Wave 1: 3326 participants
Wave 2: 2403 participants
Wave 3: 1954 participants
Wave 4: 1703 participants
Wave 5: 1430 participants
Wave 6: 1131 participants

Data Collection Events

# Name Data sources Data sources - Biosamples Start End
0 LUCAS - Wave 1
  • Questionnaires
2000 (October) 2002 (June)
1 LUCAS - Wave 2
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2007 (October) 2008 (June)
2 LUCAS - Wave 3
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2009 (October) 2010 (June)
3 LUCAS - Wave 4
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2011 (October) 2012 (June)
4 LUCAS - Wave 5
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2013 (October) 2014 (June)
5 LUCAS - Wave 6
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2015 (October) 2016 (June)
6 LUCAS - Wave 7
  • Questionnaires
  • Administrative databases
  • Other : Nursing care and dependency data from the German long-term care insurance registry.
2017 (October) 2018 (June)

Participating Studies

Acronym Name Study design Countries

Harmonization Initiatives Included

Acronym Name

Datasets

Name Data Collection Events Variables

Areas of Information Collected

Socio-demographic and economic characteristics
Death
Lifestyle and behaviours
Physical measures and assessments
Birth, pregnancy and reproductive health history
Laboratory measures
Perception of health, quality of life, development and functional limitations
Cognition, personality and psychological measures and assessments
Diseases
Life events, life plans, beliefs and values
Symptoms and signs
Preschool, school and work life
Medication and supplements
Social environment and relationships
Non-pharmacological interventions
Physical environment
Health and community care services utilization
Administrative information

Variables Content Summary

Areas of Information Collected
No Areas of Information Collected
No Scales Collected
Areas of Information Collected per per Population and Data Collection Event
No Areas of Information Collected
No Scales Collected

Networks

Acronym Name Harmonization Initiatives Individual Studies
Last Update: 2020-07-22T10:23:17.404