General Cohort of Adults in Norway (CONOR)

Lead Contacts and/or Principal Investigators (PIs):

• Lars J. Vatten, M.D., Ph.D.
  Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Giske Ursin, M.D., Ph.D.
  The Norwegian Cancer Registry

Funded Since: 1993
Funding Source: The CONOR Cohort is a collaboration of Norwegian cohorts, and therefore, funded by a combination of institutions, including the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, University of Tromsø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, University of Bergen, and University of Oslo.
Year(s) of Enrollment: Since 1993
Study Website: https://www.fhi.no/en/studies/conor/

The General Cohort of Adults in Norway (CONOR) is a collaboration between several Norwegian cohort studies, and covers northern Norway (the Tromsø Study), the middle of Norway (the HUNT Study), western Norway (the HUSK Study), and the Oslo region (the HUBRO Study), in addition to several smaller cohorts administered by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Approximately 185,000 participants have been included by the end of 2011, but the number of participants will gradually increase as new waves of data collection are conducted. The CONOR data consist of approximately 50 variables that are shared by the member cohorts.

Use of data is regulated by a common agreement between member cohorts, and a steering group with representatives from each cohort is responsible for allocating data to researchers who send applications to the steering group with the required information. Priority is given to Norwegian researchers, but applications from researchers outside Norway are also welcome.

The original purpose of the CONOR collaboration was to study rare diseases, and lately, the CONOR Cohort has provided DNA and follow-up data on cancer incidence to the NCI Cohort Consortium. In principle, the CONOR Cohort can provide follow-up data on any cancer, as well as exposure data, including extracted DNA, and a range of relevant co-variates, including smoking, body mass, and physical activity.