Join us in advancing baby gut health
Symptoms linked to the gut keep millions of babies and parents up at night. Let's change that together. The PREVENT study aims to further understand the connection between the gut microbiome during the first years of life and lifestyle, wellbeing and health in Sweden.
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For babies, parents and for
better health
Did you know more than 50% of all newborns have gut symptoms? Very often these issues are not resolved. For parents, it can be exhausting and frustrating not knowing what to do when their baby won’t stop crying. Visiting doctors and being told “things will get better with time”, or trying to navigate in a whirlwind of tip articles online without any success, does not make it any easier.
There has been a lot of research in babies' gut health, but there hasn’t been a lot of innovation in the field. We want to take things one step further. For babies, for parents and for better health for future generations. And you get to join us in doing so.
Be part of a movement that aims to improve health for future generations
Why PREVENT
So, why is gut health so important? Well, your baby’s gut is home to billions of microbes with an incredibly important role in health. This is called the gut microbiome, which is linked to common child symptoms like colic and constipation, as well as health risks later in life, like allergy, eczema or asthma.
With the PREVENT study, our goal is to power science to solve and prevent these symptoms, together.
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Let's make history together
To achieve our mission, we must first understand the role of the gut in health. The PREVENT study is mapping the link between the child’s gut microbiome and
- Lifestyle, wellbeing and health
- Crying and stool consistency
... in the Swedish population, in the first year of life.
The focus on crying is a first in history!
Join us today
What you get
3 gut microbiome tests (analysed from a stool sample with next-generation sequencing)
A report with insights on your baby's gut microbiome, developed with world-leading experts in this field
Q&A sessions with our experts in nutrition and paediatrics
This research will lead to both scientific publications and to new products to improve child health – and you get to be part of that.
Contribute to science
Participate for free from your own home with
3 sets of questionnaires (via our app)
3 stool samples from your baby (non-invasive)
3 audio recording of your baby’s crying (if applicable) and stool pictures (via our app), for each sample
at 3 specific time points over a period of 6 months.
Join a team of experts
Our combined team has over 1400 publications in this field and experience from top two of the largest child gut microbiome studies in the world:
- HELMi in Finland: 1000 children followed for 6 years, University of Helsinki
- COPSAC in Denmark: 2000 children followed for 10 or 20 years, with focus on allergy, eczema and asthma
Read more about us here.
Together, we will map the link between
Infant
gut health
Childhood symptoms
Chronic
diseases
Tell me more about the PREVENT study
The PREVENT Study is led by Alba Health in collaboration with Uppsala University, University of Antwerp and COPSAC (Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood). Alba Health is a Danish-Swedish company on a mission to help families live a healthier life based on microbiome science, in collaboration with leading universities.
Your baby's gut is home to billions of microbes (the gut microbiome) which have incredibly important roles! They help "program" the immune system, metabolism and even the nervous system - with possible implications for the rest of life. Pretty important right?
Despite that, there hasn't been much progress in technology for child health and common issues like colic, constipation, allergies, eczema keep millions of kids and parents up at night. The PREVENT Study wants to change that - and we need your help.
The PREVENT Study aims to further understand the connection between the gut microbiome during the first years of life and lifestyle, wellbeing and health in Sweden. It also aims to understand the connection between the gut microbiome and crying and stool consistency, for the first time in history. This research will both lead to scientific publications and to new products to improve child health.
We are expanding our study! Families with children born on or between June 2023 and March 2024 and living in Sweden are welcome to participate. Parents need to be at least 18 years old and need to provide their informed consent. Unfortunately, we are not able to include children born preterm or undergoing long term treatment with antibiotics or proton-pump inhibitor medications, as the microbiome in these situations is often different and requires further considerations. We are working towards being able to include all children in our next studies!
No, this is an observational study, which means we do not ask participants to change their routine. You will be able to participate from your own home and no doctor’s visits are needed. The Swedish Ethical Review Authority has approved this study, which has registration number 2023-05299-01.
No, the stool sample will be collected from the baby’s diaper.
Yes, the collection kit will be sent to your house with a return envelope to send it back to us. You will not incur any cost during this study.
- Your data is stored in the European Union according to GDPR. That means your name and address will be separated from the rest of your submitted data, so that it cannot be tracked to you. Your data will not be transferred outside of the European Union and is stored securely.
- The teams at Alba Health, Uppsala University, University of Antwerp and COPSAC will have access to the questionnaire answers and microbiome data in a pseudonymised way for the analysis (not linked to your name and address).
- We expect to publish our results in scientific publications and results will be published in an aggregated and anonymous way, according to GDPR and your consent.
- You can terminate your continued participation in the study at any time.
By microbiome data we mean the identification and quantification of the microorganisms present in a stool sample. For this study, it is referring to the microorganisms living in your infant’s gut, which does not allow to identify a particular individual. We do not analyse human DNA data.
No, this is an observational study. We do not intend to diagnose or treat disease and it does not substitute for medical consultation.
Not yet. In the meantime, please subscribe to our waiting list as we plan to expand our studies and offers to other countries soon.
We ask you to provide us with questionnaires, stool samples (and audio recordings if applicable), at 3 time points during a 6-month period. Everything can be done from your home and the gut health test is simple and only takes a few minutes. Below you can see a more detailed overview of the study design:
Still have questions?
Join us in advancing baby gut health understanding for the generations to come
