The 20-year-old Jackson Heart Study—the largest long-term study of cardiovascular health in a defined population of African-Americans—has received another six years of funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
According to a Sept. 9 report from the Clarion-Ledger, participants will undergo another exam from 2020 to 2022, which will add to the longitudinal data on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, imaging studies, biological samples and socioeconomic factors. Since 1998, the study has followed more than 5,300 people from the Jackson, Mississippi, metropolitan area.
Other plans for the continuing study, according to the Clarion-Ledger, include examining the relationship between heart and brain health and performing whole-genome sequencing on biological samples that have already been collected. Researchers hope the results help identify new genetic risk factors for CVD, as well as targets for therapy.
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Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.