Publications
Papers from the LongITools project are mapped against the life-course on our Publications Map.
LongITools
A European research project which studied the interactions between environmental, lifestyle and biological factors to determine the risks of chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The project ran from 1st January 2020 to 30th June 2025. This website will not be updated beyond August 2025.
CARDIOMETABOLIC DISEASE AND THE EXPOSOME
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths in Europe, and metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, have reached epidemic proportions worldwide and continue to become more prevalent. Together, they put significant strains on healthcare budgets and services, and affect the daily lives millions of EU citizens. It is essential that we understand more about the causes of these diseases to aid in developing policies and interventions to both reverse and prevent them.
The increase in chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases has arisen alongside significant changes in our lifestyles and living environments. The circumstances in which we live, from the air we breathe, to our lifestyle choices, the built environment that surrounds us and the socioeconomic challenges everyday life brings, have fundamental impacts on our health. The collective impact of these circumstances, or exposures, across the life-course, is relatively unknown. Therefore, we should no longer look at health as a consequence of individual events, but as a complex journey.
LongITools’ research used a holistic or ‘exposome’ approach and involved studying the impact of many exposures simultaneously. This approach enabled the assessment of multiple environmental, socioeconomic, psychosocial, lifestyle and biological factors to which an individual is exposed throughout their life. Watch our video to understand more.
There is much work being done to further our understanding of the exposome. Most recently the International Human Exposome Network (IHEN) was launched to bring together researchers, policymakers, and independent experts to improve research and collaboration on the exposome worldwide. This international network builds partly on the European Human Exposome Network (EHEN), an umbrella network of nine research projects funded by the European Union’s framework programme for research and innovation (Horizon 2020), which LongITools was part of.
