You must be a university graduate. And have the motivation to be consistent in filling out our questionnaires over the years.
At any time, since it is a dynamic—i.e. open—cohort.
You can check this information here.
In general, we are researching lifestyles that can improve the health and quality of life of the population. Principally nutritional factors, but also physical activity, smoking habits, etc., in relation to the incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cognitive deterioration and other illnesses.
Via an invitation through professional associations or university groups, or by means of an individual request, contacting us directly: sun@unav.es.
Participating in the SUN Project consists in responding to questionnaires concerning diet and health every two years. The first questionnaire is the longest, since it is necessary to obtain a variety of data concerning lifestyle. Nevertheless, the follow-up questionnaires sent every two years will only take you about 10 minutes to fill out.
During the follow-up you may be invited to participate in one or more sub-studies on concrete topics, in which you may participate on a totally voluntary basis without this affecting your participation in the SUN Project.
No, participation in this study is totally altruistic, but your collaboration is invaluable. You can feel very proud of contributing to the search for scientific evidence which will permit improving the health of the population and that of future generations.
The questionnaires include questions about the incidence of illnesses, medication, lifestyles, physical exercise, tobacco and diet. The first questionnaire includes a section on the frequency of consumption of foods that collects detailed information about foods, drinks and vitamin and mineral supplements ingested over the past year.
No. All the information collected is saved in a confidential manner and the identity of the participants is never shared. The collection of personal data such as mailing and email addresses have the single and exclusive purpose of making it possible to track the participants.
The security of participants' data, both personal and medical, is our priority. We maintain your name and address in secure files. The data provided by your response to the questionnaires is stored separately with a unique identification number, such that your medical data is never associated with a name. The project researchers only have access to this data, identified with a number.
All personal data is managed by the SUN technical team, which has signed a contract of data confidentiality.
If you participate in one of the sub-studies of the Project (diabetes, cancer, memory, etc.) and have a question, consult us by sending an email to sun@unav.es indicating your questionnaire number and the sub-study to which you belong.
Approximately 90%.
Yes, you need only visit the publications section of this website and click on the article that interests you.
If you mark “YES” in the checkbox “I want to receive the questionnaire by email” on your personal page (once you have entered the questionnaire number and password) you will automatically receive an email instead of a letter by post when it is time for you to respond to one of the follow-up questionnaires. In this email, we will provide you with your access credentials and a link to the web page where you can find your personal page, along with the questionnaire to be filled out.
This modality, in addition to being a rapid and comfortable tool for participants, avoids possible losses of the questionnaires in the mail.
The access page is the following (it functions best with Internet Explorer): www.unav.es/preventiva/sun/asistente.
The user identification that you will need consists of the questionnaire number and the password which we sent you in the letter. Sometimes there will appear a new screen requesting the updating of your password; if this occurs, please enter the password two times.
If you have forgotten or lost your access credentials, send an email to us at sun@unav.es and we will send them to you as rapidly as possible.
You can correct or change your personal data and/or contact information from the following web page. The access credentials you will need are the questionnaire number and the password which we sent you in the letter. Sometimes there will appear a new screen requesting the updating of your password; if this occurs, please enter the password two times.
You can also send an email to us at sun@unav.es indicating to us the data which you wish to have changed.
We anticipate that the SUN Project will be a long-term study. Although we have encountered diverse relationships between diet and illness, it is known that some effects of a given lifestyle may take various years to appear. The SUN Project began in 1999 and is continually growing, thanks to the fact that 90% of cohort recruits participate actively by answering the follow-up questionnaire.
Yes, you simply need to indicate your special condition in the corresponding section of the questionnaire.
Yes, you simply need to indicate your special condition in the corresponding section of the questionnaire.
If you are a participant in the study or simply are interested in the SUN Project and you have a question that has not been answered, you may send us an email at sun@unav.es and we will respond as best we can.
