Examples of cohort studies

Two examples of cohort studies that have been going on for more than 50 years are the Framingham Heart Study and the National Child Development Study (NCDS), the most widely-researched of the British birth cohort studies.

The largest cohort study in women is The Nurses' Health Study, established in 1976 by Dr. Frank Speizer, and the Nurses' Health Study II, established in 1989 by Dr. Walter Willett. These were long-term epidemiological studies conducted on women's health. The study followed 121,700 female registered nurses since 1976 and 116,000 female nurses since 1989 to assess risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease. The studies are among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases in women ever conducted.

The largest cohort study in Africa is the Birth to Twenty Study which began in 1990 and tracks a cohort of over 3,000 children born in the weeks following Nelson Mandela's release from prison.

Other famous examples are the Grant Study, tracking a number of Harvard graduates from around 1950 and the Whitehall Study, tracking 10,308 British civil servants.