The Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (Elsa-Brasil) began in Brazil in August 2008. From the so-called “Elsa calls for research”, 15,105 volunteers - all public servants aged between 35 and 74 - conducted interviews and tests for the initial evaluation of the study. Six public higher education and research institutions of the Northeast, South, and Southeast regions of Brazil participated in the research, including Fiocruz.

“The goal of the study is to discuss a Brazilian reality based on information on cardiovascular disease and diabetes and their relationship with social and biological determinants. Cancer was included later”, explains Elsa Deputy Coordinator in Rio de Janeiro, Maria de Jesus Mendes da Fonseca.  In September this year, the Study completed the second data collection phase with the participants, called Wave 2, in Rio de Janeiro. Other states need to complete the phase so that researchers may then increase knowledge from the collected data.

"What we may say about Rio de Janeiro is that we had a very little percentage of loss in participation if compared to the first wave", says the Study researcher and collaborator Arlinda Moreno. The success of researches like Elsa depends mainly on the participation of volunteers. "If people do not stay, if they abandon the initiative, we decrease the longevity of the research," says Arlinda.

Notes

In the first wave of Elsa, carried out between 2008 and 2010, the data collected revealed that 37% (5,667) of the Brazilian population was hypertensive. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke (CVA).

The coordinator of the Education Service of the Museum of Life, Hilda Gomes da Silva, was one of the volunteers. According to the exams made in the first wave, some changes were verified in the evaluation of her pressure. “My blood pressure was altered. I then sought my doctor for more exams and in order to better monitor the issue”, she says.

For volunteers like Hilda, participating in Elsa is to enhance her own health. "Today, with the daily rush, we become unable to have a more appropriate medical care. A research like this one enables us assistance in the workplace, with credibility”, she says.

National characteristics

Studies such as Elsa have been done in different developed countries and the results were the basis for recommendations on food and physical habits. These studies do not include, however, the diversity of Brazil. "Much is already known, but almost everything abroad. The idea, from Elsa, is to try to know, in fact, the Brazilian reality, whether we have similar or different data, how much we know”, said the Deputy Coordinator of the Study in Rio de Janeiro, Maria de Jesus.

Note that Elsa is not intended to diagnose and treat disease. The purpose of the study is, in fact, to foster the development of new research and support public health policies to national needs. The knowledge obtained from data collected in Wave 2 must be available at the end of next year.

Why can’t I apply as a volunteer?

Technically, Elsa-Brasil is a cohort study - in statistics, cohort is a group of people who have in common an event that took place in the same period. Studies like this, focusing on the research of cardiovascular diseases, were initiated after the end of World War II. Because it is a study of closed cohort - the same group of individuals – it is no longer possible to become a volunteer in Elsa-Brasil.

Why only voluntary servers participate?

"Because the study is longitudinal, it aims to monitor people in the long term, with specific groups. Thus, when working with servers, we may easily monitor them and one of the major problems of this type of study is reduced, i.e., the loss of segment”, explains the Deputy coordinator of the Study in Rio de Janeiro, Maria Jesus Mendes Fonseca.

Find below the institutions forming the consortium responsible for Elsa

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Federal University of Bahia

Federal University of Espírito Santo

Federal University of Minas Gerais

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

University of São Paulo

* News reproduced in the newspaper Linha Direta - Fiocruz