(P30-022-24) Hong Kong Healthspan Project - A Study Protocol

Objectives: Hong Kong enjoys one of the world’s longest life-expectancies, making it particularly important to extend the healthspan of its ageing population. A prospective longitudinal cohort with dietary data and a biobank can provide valuable information for anti-ageing interventions to promote healthspan.

Methods: “Hong Kong Healthspan Project” is a recently established cohort of Hong Kong Chinese adults aged 45 years or above that collects dietary, sleep quality, physical and cognitive data and includes the biobanking of fasting blood, urine, saliva and stool samples. Participants meet the following criteria: 1) ethnic Chinese (both parents are Chinese); 2) aged 45 years or above, 3) residence in Hong Kong for more than 30 years in total; 4) plan to stay in Hong Kong for at least 5 years; and 5) willingness to be contacted for future study and long-term follow up.

Dietary intake will be assessed by a 3-day dietary record and a 60-item food frequency questionnaire. Sleep quality, physical fitness and cognitive health are assessed by standardised methods. Lifestyle and demographic data will be collected by a survey. Subject recruitment is on-going with an anticipated 1000 subjects enrolled by end of 2024. Biosamples will be archived in aliquots for future studies on molecular biomarkers of nutritional status and hallmarks of biological ageing. Data linkage will be used to follow-up the cohort participants in long term.

Results: Multivariable linear regression will be used to assess dietary and lifestyle factors associated with markers of physical and cognitive health, adjusting for sex, chronological age, and socio-demographic factors.

Conclusions: The study will identify modifiable factors associated with different markers of healthspan among Hong Kong Chinese, with important implications for dietary and lifestyle interventions to promote both physical and cognitive health. The biobank will lay a foundation for further studies into cellular and molecular markers of biological ageing and their relationship with dietary factors.

Funding Sources: The establishment of Hong Kong Healthspan Project has been supported by seed funding, Interdisciplinary Project Fund, Research Institute for Future Food, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.