For Researchers

CanCOLD Data

With longitudinal evaluations and detailed characterization of study subjects using a range of assessment tools, CanCOLD is an invaluable resource to catalyze COPD research.

Cohort Profile

CanCOLD is the first observational cohort specific to COPD having recruited its participants from the general population rather than more convenient recruitment in clinical settings. This strategy better mirrors prevalent COPD populations at large and provides proper representation of typically underrepresented groups in COPD studies; early disease, female population, individuals who have never smoked (up to 30% of the COPD population) and those with physician undiagnosed disease (up to 70% of the COPD population).

CanCOLD originated from the cross-sectional Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study, an international initiative measuring the prevalence of COPD and its risk factors in different regions around the world, which included a data collection site in Vancouver, Canada. Expanding on this initiative nationally, the Canadian Obstructive Lung Disease (COLD) population-based prevalence study was established by randomly sampling a total of 6,551 non-institutionalized men and women aged ≥ 40 years from 9 Canadian cities: Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Quebec, Halifax, Toronto, Kingston, Saskatoon, and Ottawa.

With the aim of establishing a longitudinal population-based COPD cohort in Canada, COLD study participants within four target subsets were contacted to enroll in CanCOLD:

  1. Individuals with mild COPD (GOLD 1; post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC<0.70 and FEV1≥80% predicted)

  2. Individuals with moderate-severe COPD (GOLD ≥2; post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC<0.70 and FEV1<80% predicted)

  3. Sex and age matched (±2 years) ever-smokers without COPD

  4. Sex and age matched (±2 years) never-smokers without COPD

Data Collection Waves

Between 2009 and 2019, CanCOLD participants completed three data collection waves.

A total of 1561 participants were enrolled and completed CanCOLD baseline assessment between 2009 to 2015. Two follow-up visits have been completed since then. The first follow-up assessment (CanCOLD visit 2) was conducted on a subset of 1019 participants approximately 18 months after baseline visit (2011 to 2015). At 3 years post-baseline (2013 to 2019), 1198 CanCOLD subjects completed visit 3.

A fourth data collection wave began in 2022 and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2023.

COLD prevalence
study N = 6551

2005 to 2016

CanCOLD Visit 1
(baseline assessment)
N=1561

2009 to 2015

Time lags between assessments

Median

Min

Max

CanCOLD v1 to v2

19

months

6

months

31

months

CanCOLD v2 to v3

18

months

3

months

50

months

CanCOLD v1 to v3

37

months

24

months

84

months

COLD to v3

6

years

3

years

14

years

Visit 2

CanCOLD Visit 2
N=1019

2022 to 2023

Loss to follow up (n = 330) or deceased (n = 33)

CanCOLD Visit 3
N=1198

2013 to 2019

Visit 4

CanCOLD Visit 4
N=1019

2022 to 2023

Visit 3

Our Financial Partners