Jackson Heart Study (JHS)

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death for African-Americans. Both genetics and the environment play important roles in controlling the complex relationships between behaviors, risk factors, and cardiovascular diseases. Because of that, investigators with the JHS have also collected data on coping strategies, stressful situations, perceptions of discrimination, access to health care, medical history, and community characteristics to gain further knowledge on how the environment may affect the risk for cardiovascular diseases. The knowledge learned can help combat the high rate of heart disease in this population.

The NHLBI continues to leverage JHS data and specimens to spur new scientific discoveries. The NHLBI encourages researchers to utilize the valuable resources that have been collected since the study began in 1997. Learn more about utilizing JHS resources through the study website and through NHLBI’s Biologic Specimen and Data Repositories Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC).

Since the JHS began, enrolled participants received three consecutive exams that produced extensive data on cardiovascular disease risk factors, socioeconomic and sociocultural factors, biochemical analytes, and measures of subclinical disease.

• Baseline Exam 1 (2000-2004) included demographics, psychosocial inventories, medical history, anthropometry, resting and ambulatory blood pressure, a blood draw and 24-hour urine collection, electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiography, and lung function.
• Exam 2 (2005-2008) included some repeated measures from Exam 1 and several new components, including distribution of self-monitoring blood pressure devices, DNA collection, and computerized tomography (CT) scans of the heart and abdomen.
• Exam 3 (2009-2013) contained repeat measures from the first two exams and new questionnaires to assess sleep history and cognitive function in a subset of participants. Researchers also analyzed cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans with gadolinium MRI contrast in this group . Both assessments were aimed at identifying silent heart attacks.

The JHS contract involves higher education institutions: the University of Mississippi Medical Center (Data Acquisition Center and Data Coordinating Center and Graduate Training and Education Center), two historically Black colleges and universities, Jackson State University (Graduate Training and Education Center) and Tougaloo College (Undergraduate Training and Education Center), and a Community Engagement Center at the Mississippi State Department of Health. Selected students from the Training and Education Centers got the opportunity to take courses in public health and epidemiology and gain practical experience in health research to help prepare them for potential careers in biomedical research and professions.