Lifelines NEXT is one of Lifelines' additional assessments, performed in collaboration with the Department of Genetics at the University Medical Center Groningen.

In Lifelines NEXT the aim is to primarily include 1500 pregnant women who participate in the regular Lifelines study. Secondary, participants can enroll who are not currently in the Lifelines cohort.
Participants are included from 12 weeks of gestation, mainly via midwives and obstetricians. They are closely followed, including their partners and children until at least one year after birth. Further long-term follow-up of physical and psychological health will be embedded following the Lifelines procedures.
During the study period of Lifelines NEXT, biomaterials are collected including maternal and neonatal (cord) blood, placental tissue, feces breastmilk and urine at 10 different time points. Data on environmental factors, including continuous data collection from connected devices, social, medical and birth factors, including lifestyle related, reproduction related and nutritional factors are collected via questionnaires at 14 different time points.
The extensive collection of different biomaterials during pregnancy and thereafter will give the opportunity to relate e.g. environmental factors and maternal and neonatal microbiome composition to epigenetic changes and health outcomes. The nesting of the study within Lifelines enables to include preconceptional transgenerational data, which largely extends familial information.

The first inclusion of Lifelines NEXT was October 2016. At the time of writing (July, 2019), the project consists of approx. 500 women, partners, and their (soon to be) newborns.

NEXT is performed in pregnant Lifelines participants from 12 weeks of gestation. Also, pregnant women who are not Lifelines participant yet, can enroll in the Lifelines study. They will be followed in future research waves of Lifelines.

By clicking on these links you can learn more about sample and data collection in Lifelines NEXT.

General overview of time points for sample collection in mother, father and child over time

Specific overview of biomaterial sample type collection

Specific overview of questionnaire data collection

• Warmink-Perdijk WDB et al. (2020) Lifelines NEXT: a prospective birth cohort adding the next generation to the three-generation Lifelines cohort study. Eur J Epidemiol (in press)