2020 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 5-16
The aim of this paper is to describe the technique of "Ibaraki Cohort Study" and clarify the future issues concerning the conduct of the survey. The research program of Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization has conducted a follow-up survey that continuously tracked prenatal and postnatal women since 2017. The participants of this study live in Ibaraki city, so that this study is called “Ibaraki Cohort Study”. The purpose of the study is to clarity the physical and mental burdens of participants and their changes, the social situations of the participants, and how their situations affect the development of their children. The Ibaraki Cohort Study, which is based on questionnaire surveys, is designed to link interview surveys, saliva surveys, and behavioral observations. In order to do the survey, we have set up an administrative office to manage participants list, send email invitations to each participant at appropriate timing, and considered devises for maintaining participants. In this paper, we discussed the whole design, feasibility, subject maintenance methods, data collection and management of Ibaraki cohort study. As a result of organizing these techniques, future issues related to output of results and the operation of the secretariat were mentioned.
