Research infrastructure The Mauritius Study track how health and disease change as societies develop. For more than 30 years, researchers have been collecting unique data on conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease among the population of Mauritius. Today, the data is managed and analysed at Umeå University and provides a uniquely rich opportunity to understand how lifestyle, environment and heredity affect our health over time.
Solnedgång i Rodrigues
Image Stefan SöderbergMauritius and Rodrigues are islands in the south-eastern part of the Indian Ocean. Major changes in lifestyle have been seen during the last fifty years, and the disease panorama has changed from high infant mortality and infectious diseases to lifestyle-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
In the mid-eighties, the Mauritian government initiated a study on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in collaboration with international experts. Altogether seven population-based surveys have been performed between 1987 and 2021, and approximately 39 000 (!) examinations have been recorded. The intention is to repeat the survey every fifth year.
At each survey, participants were interviewed about living conditions, lifestyle and health, and anthropometry and blood pressure were measured. Biochemistry including lipids and an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were performed, and electrocardiograms (ECG) were recorded
The Mauritius Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) study was initially administrated by the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia under the leadership of Professor Paul Zimmet (honorary doctorate at Umeå University 2022).
Today, the study is administrated and financed by the Ministry of health in Mauritius under the leadership of Doctor Sudhir Kowlessur.
Recently, Umeå university and the Department of Public Health and Clinical medicine have been granted the privilege to curate and analyse data generated in the Mauritius and Rodrigues NCD study.
Development of cardiovascular and metabolic (diabetes) disease in Mauritius may thus tell us what will happen in these groups elsewhere.
All data are held at Umeå University and managed by the Section of Biobank and Registry Support, info.brs@umu.se
We encourage researchers to use these data; applications must include a research plan and ethical approval. The final decision is made by the steering group in Umeå following consultation with the Ministry of Health in Mauritius.
ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07048717
