ALTO cohort - The Peruvian Andes Multigenerational High Altitude Cohort (ALTO)

 The Peruvian Andes Multigenerational High Altitude Cohort (ALTO) is a birth cohort providing an opportunity for a longitudinal follow-up of children that will address child health from pregnancy to later life. It offers an ideal study setting to elucidate early life exposures and epigenetics on the occurrence and progression of disease as well as on the long-run well-being of individuals and the impact of genetic predisposition.

The ALTO Cohort is sampled in a regionally representative manner in a high altitude rural setting of Cajamarca, Andean Peru. The ALTO Cohort will provide an unprecedented opportunity to closely collaborate with ongoing cohort efforts in Laos, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Brazil, Kosovo, Palestine and Switzerland to ensure consistent data collection and to maximise the opportunities for multi-site studies.

While a substantial number of birth cohorts have been established in Latin America over the past three decades, very little is currently known about high altitude Andean rural populations of Peru. The main objective of this project is to enrol a representative sample of 2000 newborns and their family kin in a whole province of Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes. The cohort offers a unique opportunity to investigate the aetiology, prevention and control of different non-communicable, infectious and maternal diseases in a prospective and cross-generational manner in a high altitude setting. In order to study multigenerational effects, we will follow the index child and their family kin including their parents, grandparents and grand-grandparents (a total of four generations).

In a first phase we carry out a baseline socio-economic and livelihood assessment and describe personal lifestyle and mother and the current child health situation. Information is collected at the household with the pregnant woman and her family members. The same information is sought from grandparent or great grandparent not living in the same household, but in the Province of San Marcos. A first project within the ALTO Cohort platform investigates the epidemiology of metabolic syndrome and collects a first set of biomarkers among the parents of the newborn children. The ALTO platform will develop an own biobank in the near future.

Involved Regions: Latin America and Caribbean
Involved Countries: Peru

Contact

Daniel Mäusezahl

Project Facts

Collaborating Institutions