The multidisciplinary Estrogenic Regulation of Muscle Apoptosis (ERMA) study was designed to reveal how hormonal differences over the menopausal stages affect the physiological and psychological functioning of middle-aged women. In addition, health behaviour (e.g., physical activity and eating behaviour) and blood-based biomarkers are investigated. Biomarker data includes different omics datasets (e.g. metabolomics, genomics, transcriptomics). The complete data set includes baseline data collection and two different follow-ups. The baseline ERMA study (=parent data) is a population-based cohort study, which forms a parent data set for the follow-up studies (ERMA follow-up and EsmiRs). Data set includes 47 to 55 years old Caucasian women living in the city of Jyväskylä or neighboring municipalities in Finland. Population sample was drawn from The Finnish Population Information System (dvv.fi) and is described in Kovanen et al 2018 (doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000001117). Data collection proceeded in different phases including several questionnaires, biological sampling (blood samples and muscle biopsies for a subset of participants) and laboratory measurements. Physical activity was assessed as self-reports via questionnaires and with accelerometer measurements (ActiGraph). Eating behaviour was assessed through structured questionnaires. Laboratory measurements included body composition measurements (DXA and Inbody), muscle strength (hand grip, knee extension), muscle power (vertical jump test) and paper-pen type of cognition measurements. The English translation of main questionnaire and the study flow indicating connections between baseline ERMA and its follow-ups (by 25.4.2022) are attached.

2022