The Amish Research Group of the University of Maryland School of Medicine has been studying the Old Order Amish population in Lancaster County, PA, since 1993. This database currently consists of health-related data on over 7,000 adults resulting from studies ranging from population and basic science to clinical and translational research. Areas of investigation include: Cardiovascular Risk, Diabetes, Bone Health, Blood Pressure, Vascular Imaging, Aging, Breast Tissue Density, Platelet Aggregation, Microbiome, Wellness, and Brain Imaging. Extensive genetic data (genotyping and sequencing) is also available.
This dataset consists of comparisons of mortality and hospital discharge rates/diagnoses between Old Order Amish (OOA) living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and non-Amish Caucasians. The Anabaptist Genealogy Database Version 5 (AGDB5) and the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) were utilized for the mortality statistics for each cohort, respectively. Additionally, OOA health-related data were collected from hospital discharge records from 4 Lancaster County hospitals while the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) was used for non-Amish Caucasians. For each discharge the principal diagnosis and up to 6 additional diagnoses were recorded using ICD-9-CM codes. The dataset consists of demographics, mortality statistics, hospital discharge and diagnoses data, as well as longevity and health-related comparison analyses between the two groups.