aThe George Institute for International Health, Sydney, Australia
bUniversity of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
cShiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan
dYonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
eUniversity of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
fChinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
gUniversity of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
hTohoku University, Sendai, Japan
*Details of the Asia-Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration are given in the Appendix.
Received 19 April, 2006
Revised 1 September, 2006
Accepted 4 September, 2006
Correspondence and requests for reprints to Alexandra Martiniuk, The George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney, PO Box M201 Missenden Road; Camperdown, NSW; 2050, Australia Tel: +61 2 9993 4500; fax: +61 2 9993 4501; e-mail: [email protected]
Sponsorship: This project was supported through a program grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer Inc. A.L.C.M. received support from a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. C.M.Y.L. is supported by a postgraduate scholarship from the National Health and Medical Research Council. C.M.M.L. is supported by a National Heart Foundation (New Zealand) Fellowship. The sponsors had no influence on design, analysis or interpretation of results.
Conflict of interest: none.