Guestspeaker PD Dr. Jon Genuneit from the Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University will giv a talk entitled: The Ulm Birth Cohort Studies: recruitment, results, and reflections.

The Ulm Birth Cohort Study (UBCS) and the Ulm SPATZ Health Study, two methodologically similar birth cohort studies recruited live newborns and their mothers from the general population shortly after delivery in the University Medical Center Ulm, Southern Germany, from 11/2000–11/2001 and 04/2012–05/2013, respectively. Exclusion criteria were outpatient delivery, maternal age < 18 years, transfer of the newborn or the mother to intensive care immediately after delivery, and/or insufficient knowledge of the German (UBCS and SPATZ), Turkish, or Russian (both UBCS only) language. At baseline, the UBCS and SPATZ cohorts respectively included 1090 newborns of 1066 mothers (67% of all 1593 eligible families) and 1006 newborns of 970 mothers (49% of all 1999 eligible families). Currently, the 17-year and the 6-year follow-ups are ongoing in UBCS and SPATZ, respectively. This presentation will highlight similarities and differences in study design and content. Published results as well as ongoing research will be discussed covering topics like gestational weight gain, fetal and child growth, inflammatory biomarkers, breastfeeding and breastmilk composition, family psychosocial stress, parental and child sleep as well as child atopic dermatitis