Cohort Profile Update: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort (MoBa)

The original cohortThe Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), initially named the Norwegian Mother and Child Study, was launched in the 1990s by epidemiologists at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, studying pregnancy outcomes from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway [1].The primary aim was to identify causes of diseases by collecting comprehensive exposure and outcome data from fetal life onwards [2].Recruitment began in 1999 with a postal invitation and the first questionnaire was sent prior to the routine ultrasound examination in the 17th week of pregnancy.Biological material was collected during the ultrasound appointment.In 2008, the goal of recruiting 100 000 pregnancies was achieved and recruitment concluded, with the last MoBa baby born in July 2009.Previous MoBa cohort profiles have described the initial sampling and waves of data collection up to 2016 [2, 3]. What is the reason for the new data collection?Since 2016, data-collection efforts in MoBa have been initiated to update and enrich existing datasets, providing crucial Key Features The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a large population-based cohort and biobank for research on health and development. MoBa includes data on 94 834 mothers, 75 229 fathers, and 113 632 children (currently aged 15-25 years) recruited during pregnancy between 1999 and 2008, with continuing follow-up from a life-course perspective. Up to 25 years of follow-up with linkages to national registries provides unique research opportunities.Recent data collections among children aged 13-25 years and parents aged 32-86 years include questionnaires on health, lifestyle, fertility, COVID-19, cognitive tests, and clinical measurements. Genotyped data are available for 225 667 MoBa participants, including 30 000 full mother-father-child trios.The biodata resource also offers large-scale datasets (n > 10 000) on the epigenome and metabolome and smaller datasets (n 100-10 000) on biomarkers from blood, plasma, urine, and serum. MoBa data access is given through helsedata.no;see https://www.fhi.no/en/ch/studies/moba/for-forskere-artikler/research-and-dataaccess/.New collaborations are welcome.