Future Finland – the Birth of a New Nationwide Birth Cohort
1
Welfare Epidemiology and Monitoring Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
2
Clinical Medicine Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
3
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A3705
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Birth cohorts are crucial for our understanding of lifelong health and well-being and for contributing to global public health promotion and other policies. Yet, there are gap areas where the existing birth cohorts are unable to hold this promise. For example, many mother-child cohorts ignore fathers/other parents and siblings, and few devote effort into inclusion of minorities The Future Finland Birth Cohort (FFBC) is an innovative data resource designed to advance interdisciplinary scientific research with a goal of improving population wellbeing and promoting social sustainability over the next 100 years.
METHODS:
FFBC comprises two arms: 1) National registers and other nationally collected data: A nationwide individual level register-linkage study of all people born in Finland during 2025-2029 (n>200,000), their parents and siblings. In addition to well-established healthcare registers (e.g. Medical Birth, Death, Medication and Patient registers and socioeconomic data from national statistics authority), FFBC will harmonise data collected in structured format in routine antenatal and child healthcare and education. 2) In-depth data collection: A subset of pregnant women and their partners will be invited during first trimester ultrasound to in-depth data collection including blood samples (first trimester, cord blood and newborn blood spot) obtained in routine healthcare and questionnaires to both parents during pregnancy and infancy. This data collection will be piloted regionally in 2026-2027 and extended nationwide by 2028. Planning of the future follow-up is ongoing.
RESULTS:
FFBC data will be made available to the global scientific community for well-justified research purposes.
CONCLUSIONS:
FFBC is a new national birth cohort currently transferring from design to pilot phase. Unique features include (i) extensive secondary use of new forms of nationwide administrative data, (ii) linkage of parents and siblings, and (iii) combination of these with biological samples and questionnaires. FFBC will enable assessment of policy impacts and innovative interdisciplinary research.
Birth cohorts are crucial for our understanding of lifelong health and well-being and for contributing to global public health promotion and other policies. Yet, there are gap areas where the existing birth cohorts are unable to hold this promise. For example, many mother-child cohorts ignore fathers/other parents and siblings, and few devote effort into inclusion of minorities The Future Finland Birth Cohort (FFBC) is an innovative data resource designed to advance interdisciplinary scientific research with a goal of improving population wellbeing and promoting social sustainability over the next 100 years.
METHODS:
FFBC comprises two arms: 1) National registers and other nationally collected data: A nationwide individual level register-linkage study of all people born in Finland during 2025-2029 (n>200,000), their parents and siblings. In addition to well-established healthcare registers (e.g. Medical Birth, Death, Medication and Patient registers and socioeconomic data from national statistics authority), FFBC will harmonise data collected in structured format in routine antenatal and child healthcare and education. 2) In-depth data collection: A subset of pregnant women and their partners will be invited during first trimester ultrasound to in-depth data collection including blood samples (first trimester, cord blood and newborn blood spot) obtained in routine healthcare and questionnaires to both parents during pregnancy and infancy. This data collection will be piloted regionally in 2026-2027 and extended nationwide by 2028. Planning of the future follow-up is ongoing.
RESULTS:
FFBC data will be made available to the global scientific community for well-justified research purposes.
CONCLUSIONS:
FFBC is a new national birth cohort currently transferring from design to pilot phase. Unique features include (i) extensive secondary use of new forms of nationwide administrative data, (ii) linkage of parents and siblings, and (iii) combination of these with biological samples and questionnaires. FFBC will enable assessment of policy impacts and innovative interdisciplinary research.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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