Cohort profile: Design and methods of the PREDIMED study

Abstract

A call for grants was issued in 2002 by the Spanish Government (Instituto de Salud Carlos III). This call was specifically designed to initiate networking research among Spanish biomedical investigators. During 2002, Ramón Estruch—the leader of our initiative—contacted different Spanish investigators (the rest of us) working in nutrition from different perspectives. We applied together for a grant to start a large randomized trial to test the effectiveness of a Mediterranean diet (MeDiet) on the ‘primary’ prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to continue the study as an observational cohort of high-risk participants to be followed-up in the long term. On 6 January 2003 our project was funded.