Susanne Montgomery, PhD, MPH¹, W. Lawrence Beeson, MSPH², Terry Butler, PhD³, Gary Fraser, MD, PhD³, Patti Herring, PhD, RN⁴, and Synnove F. Knutsen, MD, MPH, PhD⁵. (1) Health Promotion & Education, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Nichol Hall, Loma Linda, CA 92350, 909 558-8729, smontgomery@sph.llu.edu, (2) Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, 24785 Stewart Street, Evans Hall, Room 215, Loma Linda, CA 92350, (3) Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Loma Linda University, School of Public Health, Evans Hall, Room 203, Loma Linda, CA 92350, (4) School of Public Health, Department of Health Promotion and Education, Loma Linda University, Nichol Hall, Room 1501, Loma Linda, CA 92350, (5) Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Nichol Hall, Hill Drive, Loma Linda, CA 92354

With the aging of the American population understanding the roots of chronic diseases and cancers is increasingly important. As many struggle with obesity, diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors need to be better understood so we can work towards longevity with high quality of life. Funded in 2001, the AHS-2 aims to recruit 125,000 (45,000 Black) Seventh day Adventists (SDAs). Participants must be 30 years or older and speak fluent English. SDAs are an ideal group to study because of their diversity in diet ranging from vegan to daily meat eaters, and because their low levels of smoking and alcohol consumption minimize confounding. Previously validated mailed questionnaires are processed by file scanning methodology. Cancer incidence is validated through tumor registries, and death certificates. This paper describes the aims and methods of this major study and responses by the first 47,217 participants of which 35% were male, 73% are currently married, 21% are Black, and 40% have at least a bachelor degree. Furthermore, 42.7% report not eating meat, 58% report being overweight or obese, 51% report engaging in a regular exercise program and 45% exercising vigorously at least 3 times per week. Only 1% report current smoking, 19% report smoking in the past, 65% report never drinking alcohol, 85% report being in excellent or good health and 75% report sleeping an average of 7or more hours per night. We believe that this cohort will be critical to improving our understanding of the effect of currently recommended lifestyle choices.

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