Rotterdam Study
Overview
The Rotterdam Study is a large prospective population cohort based in the Ommoord district of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, running continuously since 1990. It was originally established to investigate the determinants of chronic disease in middle-aged and elderly populations and has grown into a deeply phenotyped European population biobank. Approximately 15,000 participants aged 45 and over had been enrolled across three cohort waves (RS-I, RS-II, RS-III) as of 2024, with follow-up visits every four to five years. The cohort is a widely used resource for neuroimaging genetics, with a population brain MRI dataset that has grown substantially over successive imaging rounds.
Neuroimaging Component
The neuroimaging sub-study has collected brain MRI (structural T1, FLAIR, diffusion, and where available functional MRI) alongside comprehensive cognitive assessments, enabling investigation of subcortical volumes, white matter lesions, cerebral microbleeds, silent brain infarcts, and cognitive trajectories. It has contributed substantially to large-scale neuroimaging GWAS efforts through consortia including the ENIGMA Consortium and CHARGE.
Access
Data are available to external researchers through a formal application process via the Erasmus MC data access committee. Summary-level genetic data from Rotterdam Study GWAS are deposited in the EGA. The Rotterdam Study is registered with BBMRI-ERIC as a node in the European biobanking infrastructure.
Connections
- memberOf: BBMRI-ERIC
- registeredIn: EGA
- memberOf: ENIGMA Consortium
Resources
- https://www.erasmusmc.nl/en/research/institutes/erasmus-mc-population-genomics/the-rotterdam-study
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00640-5 (Ikram et al. 2020 — cohort profile update)