HUNT for better public health

Aims: The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) has collected population data through comprehensive decennial surveys over the last four decades and has so far collected data from 240,000 participants. The participants are identified with the unique Norwegian birth number, which enables them to be followed throughout different life stages, from survey to survey, and to endpoint measures in Norwegian national health registers without attrition bias. Methods: The study design of HUNT offers several advantages: it provides an overview of the public health development in the population over decades, the data can be used in health services research, clinical epidemiology, studies of causation, trajectories, and consequences of diseases, and to study gene × environment interactions. Results: HUNT data have shown major shifts in public health trends, such as decreasing mean blood pressure and resting heart rate among adults, increasing prevalence of obesity, geographical and socioeconomic inequalities i