Follow-up and disease history
The AMORIS cohort contains a large number of clinical events, representing a broad spectrum of diseases. Cause specific mortality has been followed during the period 1985-2012 through the Swedish National Cause of Death Register. This register covers all deaths in Sweden and is basically without loss of deaths. Between 1985 and 2012, there were 153,820 deaths (18.9 %) in the AMORIS cohort.
Incident cases of cancer in the AMORIS cohort has been captured through the Swedish National Cancer Register during the period 1958-2012. Reporting of new cancer cases to the National Cancer Register is mandatory by law in Sweden. Between 1985 and 2011, a total of 144,533 (17.8 %) incident cases of cancer were identified in the AMORIS cohort. Prevalent cases or history of cancer at the baseline examination going back to 1958 has also been recorded for the cohort.
All hospitalizations in the AMORIS cohort have been identified through the Swedish National Patient Register during the period 1987-2012 nationally and 1964-1986 regionally. Specialized outpatient care visits have been captured since 2001. During the period 1985-2012 more than 4.5 million hospitalizations or specialized outpatient visits were recorded for the AMORIS cohort. Information about history of hospitalizations are available through regional data going back to 1964.
With regard to mortality, cancer incidence and hospitalizations there was virtually no loss to follow-up and 42,909 subjects were censored during the follow-up to 2012 due to emigration out of Sweden.