Background

Our lifestyle choices such as diet, physical exercise and substance use are major causes of many diseases, and account for a large proportion of preventable mortality. Our lifestyles develop early on in childhood, but their effects on our health are often not seen until decades later.

Individual habits are also based on changes that have occurred at community-level, such as the long-running rural migration to cities, changes in business and industry structure, changes in family life, the EU membership and the globalisation of the world economy. These all have influenced population and individual health in different ways.

Finland has a high level of experience in researching the genetic background and lifestyle factors of major diseases affecting public health. Special circumstances, Finns being a people that descends from a small founding population, and Finland's high-quality health care system, clinical expertise and precise and consistent disease diagnostics have been the basis for the success of genetic research in Finland.

Finland also has long traditions in effective interventions in disease prevention. An example of a community-level, population-based intervention is the world-acclaimed North Karelia Project, while great success at the individual level was achieved through a randomised experiment of the ATBC study (Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention). Significant results have been achieved in primary prevention in reducing the level of morbidity and mortality in myocardial and cerebral infarction, and population cancer screenings have reduced cervical and breast cancer mortality. By virtue of all this, Finland is among the world's leading countries also in the evaluation of public health measures and programmes.

Implementation of interventions requires research knowledge, as well as impact assessments of different operational models and different contexts. The unique strength of the Finnish research system is that it provides a possibility to clarify the details of the risk relations and dialogue between genetic and lifestyle/environmental factors.

Objectives and themes

The research programme seeks to

• support high-level, multidisciplinary research on the interactions and risk relations of genotype, lifestyles and environmental factors in major diseases affecting public health
• increase national and international networking and cooperation of Finnish researchers in the field,
• promote the national and international mobility of researchers in the field,
• advance the application of new research methods in the study of diseases of public health importance,
• support researcher training, in particular with regard to young researchers
• establish new forms of cooperation between research teams and participating countries, and
• improve the flow of information and communication on research results among researchers as well as between researchers and other interest groups (e.g. political decision-makers, health care professionals, the media and the general public).

The themes of the research programme:

The research programme is focused on identification of aetiological, hereditary and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of diseases of public health importance, and on the prevention of these diseases. The programme will make good use of the distinctive characteristics of the Finnish population, the infrastructure of Finnish society, Finnish health care registers and population information systems.

The programme aims to combine not only a genetic and epidemiological approach, but also a social and behavioural sciences approach to research in major diseases. Furthermore, the programme stresses ethical, socio-cultural and economic perspectives.

International funding cooperation

The high level of expertise of Finnish research teams in the study of the genetic and lifestyle factors behind diseases of public health importance and strong experience of intervention also creates good prospects of attracting international cooperation. Through international cooperation Finnish teams can, on the other hand, further the development of research in countries that are only just starting to adopt western lifestyles and dietary with all their adverse health effects.