The UMCG website shows YouTube videos. YouTube places cookies if you watch them. Choose ‘Rather not’ if you do not want these cookies. We also place cookies of our own. These help us improve the usability of our website.
More on our cookie policy.
GECKO started in 2006 and aims to identify behavioural, social, environmental, and genetic risk factors for childhood obesity. In 2006, the Groningen Expert Center for Kids with Obesity (GECKO) started studying the development of childhood overweight.
The GECKO Drenthe cohort follows children born in Drenthe between April 2006 and April 2007, which we call a birth cohort. No new children are needed for the studies. The children currently participating are followed from birth to adulthood.
Please visit the UMCG Research Data Catalogue for more detailed information on our data and samples.
Paternal and maternal data are collected regarding their reproductive and medical history, social structures, lifestyle, diet, and smoking behaviour before and during pregnancy. Clinical data regarding the pregnancy and delivery were collected from obstetricians, midwives, and general practitioners.
The child's birth is the start of collecting more information. The parents have to answer questionnaires about lifestyle, dietary behaviour, physical activity, biological factors, social factors, environmental influences, and illnesses.
Youth healthcare practitioners use anthropometry measurements to provide data regarding weight, height, head, hip and waist circumference, and blood pressure.
Additional measurements could involve urine samples, blood samples, GWAS, methylation analyses of cord blood, and physical activity measured with accelerometers.
Within GECKO, we work together with other organisations, such as:
Please visit GECKO Drenthe - Onderzoek naar overgewicht bij kinderen for more information about participation (in Dutch).
The GECKO Drenthe cohort has been designed to examine the behavioural, social, environmental, and genetic risk factors for childhood obesity. Our study is a population-based birth-cohort study of children born between April 2006 and April 2007. A total of 5,326 infants were born during this period. GECKO Drenthe includes a total of 2,842 children. They are being followed from birth to adulthood.
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
GECKO
PO Box 30.001
9700 RB Groningen
The Netherlands
Visiting address
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
9713 AV Groningen
More information visite our website