Description of Collaborative Activity: |
The Jackson Heart Study (JHS) is a multi-center investigation of predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in 5301 African Americans living in counties surrounding the Jackson, MS, metropolitan area. The JHS was initiated in 1998 as a collaborative effort among three Jackson-area academic institutions. The JHS completed three back-to-back cohort examinations that have produced extensive longitudinal data on traditional and putative CVD risk factors, socioeconomic and sociocultural factors and biochemical analytes; measures of subclinical disease from echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart, aorta and abdomen; and stored biological samples. In addition, the JHS has conducted annual cohort follow-up contacts for incident clinical events of interest, a variety of community education and outreach activities to promote healthy lifestyles to reduce disease risk burden, and level-appropriate training programs to promote and support public health research. Since 2011, CMS data has been provided through an interagency agreement to obtain services and expertise in acquisition and utilization of Medicare claims data for participants enrolled in the JHS. Combining the detailed clinical and epidemiological data of the JHS with the Medicare claims data allows (1) assessment of major events (hospitalizations, stroke, MI) for participants lost to follow-up, (2) validation of selected outcomes reported by participants, and (3) expansion of the JHS research agenda to address questions related to resource utilization among elderly JHS participants that could not be addressed using the JHS data or Medicare claims data alone. Conference calls are conducted among staff of the study, the CMS, and the NHLBI to discuss the data availability, confidentiality, quality, distribution, and to identify research opportunities. |
