What's New With the OHS?

One of the most important challenges in a long-term study is keeping in touch with participants to collect up-to-date information. As the study continues into the future with follow-up questionnaires and other initiatives, it is important that we are able to communicate with our participants. In order to ensure we are able to reach you, we ask that you please add a contact phone number to your account.

In this issue: New study on metabolic syndrome to use OHS data: OHS principal investigator awarded $2 million research grant; OHS data provides closer look at mental health of ethnocultural minorities: A new study examines the link between ethnicity and mental health risk; Discovery—It’s in your Blood: Provide a blood sample to the OHS; Building a “biobank”: Find out what happens after you’ve donated a blood sample to the OHS; We’d like to hear from you: Tell us what you think

One of the first of many projects to use Ontario Health Study data now published!

The Ontario Health Study (OHS) recently launched an ambitious program to travel to communities across the province to collect blood specimens from current participants and enroll new participants. The collected blood samples are a critical part of the Study’s mission to create a resource for scientists to access to use to better understand the causes of cancer and other chronic diseases.

When you take part in the Ontario Health Study (OHS), you are contributing to something even bigger. The OHS is one of five regional cohorts of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP), alongside the Alberta Tomorrow Project, the BC Generations Project, CARTaGENE in Quebec, and the Atlantic PATH project. The data collected by these studies are harmonized to create the largest health study of its kind in Canada.

How can you make an even greater contribution to the Ontario Health Study (OHS)? Join the more than 20,000 OHS participants who have already contributed to the Study’s Blood Collection Program to enhance the data provided in their online questionnaires. Additional samples are still needed.

On September 29, 2013 the Ontario Health Study celebrated its third anniversary as an online study. The Study is the largest long-term health study ever attempted in North America and already nearly 225,000 Ontarians have taken the online survey. The information obtained through the survey will help scientists understand the risk factors and causes of chronic diseases and spur the creation of new prevention strategies and treatments. If you haven't already done so please sign up for the Study at http://www.ontariohealthstudy.ca.

It is with great excitement that we announce the launch of the Ontario Health Study’s Blood Collection Program! You have already made a great contribution to health research by joining the Study and completing our first online health questionnaire. Now, if you also provide a blood sample to the OHS, researchers will be able to study the information you’ve already provided in connection with your blood sample. This will give them even greater insight into the various factors that influence health and quality of life.

In order to make it possible for all OHS participants to easily provide a blood sample, we have partnered with LifeLabs^® Medical Laboratory Services. This partnership makes it easy for OHS participants to visit one of LifeLabs’ 120 locations throughout the province to provide a sample at their convenience. To learn more about the Study’s Blood Collection Program and to locate a LifeLabs facility near you, please visit the OHS website by clicking here.