Finnish Twin Cohort Study (FTC)
The Older Finnish Twin Cohort study recruited all same-sex twin pairs born before 1958 in Finland. Twin pairs with the same name, birthplace, and sex at birth were invited to participate. All participants were at least 18 years old, with the oldest being 95 years old. All participants were able to speak Finnish or Swedish. At baseline, 13,888 twin pairs were recruited into the study, resulting in a cohort of more than 27,000 participants.
Study design
Cohort - twin
Number of participants at first data collection
27,776 (participants)
Age at first data collection
18 - 95 years (participants)
Participant year of birth
Varied (participants)
Participant sex
All
Representative sample at baseline?
All same-sex twins born in Finland before 1958.
Sample features
Country
Year of first data collection
1975
Primary Institutions
University of Helsinki (Helsingin yliopisto)
Links
helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/genetic-epidemiology/about
thl.fi/en/research-and-development/thl-biobank/for-researchers/sample-collections/twin-study
Profile paper DOI
Funders
Academy of Finland
European Commission
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Ongoing?
Yes
Data types collected
- Activity log (e.g. food, sleep, exercise)
- Computer, paper or task testing (e.g. cognitive testing, theory of mind doll task, attention computer tasks)
- Interview – face-to-face
- Interview – phone
- Physical or biological assessment (e.g. blood, saliva, gait, grip strength, anthropometry)
- Self-report questionnaire – paper or computer assisted
- None
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
- Census data
- Education data
- Employer data
- Healthcare data
- Medical birth registry
- Mortality data
- Police & judicial system data
- Social care data
- Tax, income & benefit data
Engagement
Keywords
Consortia and dataset groups
