ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, epidemiological research of so-called ‘complex’ diseases, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, has identified a number o f risk factors for these common age-related disorders. Examples include obesity for diabetes, low bone mineral density (BM D ) for osteoporosis, and smoking for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Some of these risk factors are used in clinical practice, for example to identify subjects at risk and for monitoring the treatment of patients with these diseases.
