Swiss National Cohort: Introduction

The Swiss National Cohort (SNC) is a long-term, census-based, multipurpose cohort and research platform. It is based on the linkage of individual data from the Census 1990 to the Census 2000. This basic database has been enhanced with information from the mortality records from 1991 up to 2005. Because in Switzerland we lack of an individual identifier, the method of probabilistic record linkage was used to assign a record from the mortality statistic to a record in the Census data.

This linkage of the datasets allows to follow-up people in Switzerland over a long period and is therefore suitable for longitudinal studies.

The Swiss National Cohort is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and runs presumably from the 1st of July 2006 to the 30th of June 2009.

			Swiss National Cohort: Longitudinal study of people living in Switzerland

			Introduction The Swiss National Cohort (SNC) is a long-term, census-based, multipurpose cohort and research platform. It is based on the linkage of individual data from the Census 1990 to the Census 2000. This basic database has been enhanced with information from the mortality records from 1991 up to 2005. Because in Switzerland we lack of an individual identifier, the method of probabilistic record linkage was used to assign a record from the mortality statistic to a record in the Census data. This linkage of the datasets allows to follow-up people in Switzerland over a long period and is therefore suitable for longitudinal studies. The Swiss National Cohort is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and runs presumably from the 1st of July 2006 to the 30th of June 2009.