title: Rationale, design, and profile of the Three-Prefecture Cohort in Japan: A 15-year follow-up.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We reutilized the existing Three-Prefecture Cohort to evaluate the relationship between lifestyle factors and the incidence or mortality from non-communicable diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a prospective population-based observation conducted from the 1980s to 2000 in three prefectures (Miyagi, Aichi, and Osaka) in Japan. The study subjects were residents aged ≥40 years who received a questionnaire. The follow-up period was 15 years from the baseline survey in each study area. A self-administered questionnaire, which included items on participants' demographic factors and lifestyle characteristics, was administered. Vital status and date of death were collected from residence certificates by the local government, and cause of death was identified using vital statistics. Cancer incidence and the date of diagnosis were collected from local cancer registry data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 46,421 men and 54,189 women were eligible for our analysis. The person-years of follow-up for cancer incidence were 464,664 and 567,271 for men and women, respectively, and those for death were 527,940 and 648,601 for men and women, respectively. There were 8479 cancer incidences (5106 men and 3373 women) and 20,240 total deaths (11,156 men and 9084 women). The stomach was the most common cancer incidence site for both men (25.6%) and women (18.6%). The leading cause of death was cancer among men (35.0%) and cardiovascular disease among women (41.0%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Three-Prefecture Cohort Study enabled us to reveal the association of multiphasic lifestyle factors with cancer incidence and mortality. The study will also allow us to conduct a pooled analysis in combination with other large-scale cohorts.
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sado
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuhisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan. Electronic address: ytkitamura@envi.med.osaka-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine and Population Sciences, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomotaka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sobue
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University, Kahoku, Ishikawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishino
authors.affiliation: Aichi Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Center of Cancer Control and Statistics, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Devepartment of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.affiliation: Aichi Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidemi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Center of Cancer Control and Statistics, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Takaichiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Division of Surveillance, Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Katanoda
authors.affiliation: Aichi Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Suketami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tominaga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cancer; Cohort; Incidence; Mortality; The Three-Prefecture Cohort