The Brazilian longitudinal study of adult health (ELSA-Brasil): The best science is providing health for all

Abstract

Two situations: March 2018. Duke University, United States. The head of the United States National Health Institutes opens a summit conference of world epidemiology, by presenting the 60 most essential cohort studies currently in existence. Among the first slides, there is a world map with the area corresponding to Brazil, showing the presence in this country with a cohort study. It is the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil), a research project that originated in and was financed in this country that has met all the quality requirements to be in the first team of world science. August 2004. Auditorium of Hospital Universitário, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. Researchers from USP, FIOCRUZ (Rio de Janeiro) and the Federal Universities of Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and Bahia launch a proposal to study the determinants of heart disease and diabetes in a Brazilian population, after two days of meetings. The plan of what would become ELSA-Brasil was born.