Study Design and Baseline Profiles of Participants in the Tianjin Birth Cohort (TJBC) in China.

BackgroundTo investigate the causal link between early-life exposures and long-term health consequences, we established the Tianjin Birth Cohort (TJBC), a large-scale prospective cohort in northern China.MethodsTJBC aims to enroll 10,000 families with follow-ups from pregnancy until children's six year-old. Pregnant women and their spouses were recruited through a three-tier antenatal healthcare system at early pregnancy, with follow-ups at mid-pregnancy, late pregnancy, delivery, 42 days after delivery, 6 months after delivery and each year until 6 year-old. Antenatal/neonatal examination, biological samples and questionnaires were collected.ResultsFrom August 2017 to January 2019, a total of 3,924 pregnant women has already been enrolled, and 1697 women have given birth. We observed the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus as 18.1%, anemia as 20.4%, and thyroid hypofunction as 2.0%. In singleton live births, 5.6% were preterm birth (PTB), 3.7% were low birth weight and 7.3% were macrosomia. Based on current data, we also identified maternal/paternal factors which increased the risk of PTB, including paternal age (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.14 for each year increase), vaginal bleeding during pregnancy (OR, 2.82; 95% CI, 1.54-5.17) and maternal early-pregnancy BMI (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.01-1.15 for each kg/m2 increase).ConclusionTJBC has the strength of collecting comprehensive maternal, paternal and childhood information. With a diverse range of biological samples, we are also engaging with emerging new technologies for multi-omics researches. The study would provide new insight into the causal link between macro/micro-environmental exposures of early life and short/long-term health consequences.