Did you know? Both Genes and Lifestyle Are Crucial for Personalized Prevention!
Dr. med. habil. Katharina Lechner, Medical Lead of the KORA Digital-Fit Intervention Study, Helmholtz Munich.
Dr. med. habil. Katharina Lechner, Medical Lead of the KORA Digital-Fit Intervention Study, Helmholtz Munich
"The societal impact of reduced healthspan is profound. As a cardiologist, I am committed to helping individuals stay healthier for longer. As a scientist, I am passionate about better understanding the determinants of healthspan. The current focus of my work is to investigate scalable and personalized prevention frameworks for potential use in public health."
Dr. med. habil. Katharina Lechner, Medical Lead of the KORA Digital-Fit Intervention Study, Helmholtz Munich
Dr. med. habil. Katharina Lechner explains why evidence-based prevention should be based on individual recommendations.
An apple a day... Is that enough to stay healthy?
KL: No. While it's true that a healthy diet and lifestyle are important for maintaining a healthy metabolism and functional capacity well into old age, there are also genetic risk factors, such as those for elevated blood lipid levels, that require separate attention. This is particularly true for healthy, athletic individuals who are often perceived as "seemingly" healthy due to their appearance and thus fall through the cracks of the healthcare system. What we need here is a personalized prevention strategy. This strategy should include advice on healthy lifestyle patterns and screening for factors that, even with the healthiest lifestyle, cannot be controlled. If such factors are present, they should be managed with pharmacotherapy. It is about selecting the appropriate intervention for each specific risk factor. In addition to behavioral preventive measures that focus on an individual's lifestyle, it is very important to implement measures that protect people from environmental stressors, such as temperature extremes and air pollution.
Functional Capacity
Functional capacity describes a person's ability to cope with physical demands. It can be quantified through stress testing and is used for fitness assessment and prognosis evaluation.
Functional capacity depends on:
- Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max): This measures how effectively the lungs extract oxygen from the inhaled air, how well the heart muscle distributes oxygen throughout the body, and how efficiently the muscles, particularly their cellular powerhouses (the so-called mitochondria), can convert it into energy.
- Muscle strength and endurance
- Flexibility and stability
Mediteraneo - stock.adobe.comHow can personalized prevention concepts be implemented?
KL: To provide personalized, comprehensive recommendations I need to fully understand the person I am advising. This means I need information about their exposure to risk factors – both genetic and acquired – as well as their current functional capacity, along with their family and personal medical history. In the second step, I can create a personalized treatment plan tailored to the needs of this individual. Taking into account their possibilities and preferences, I then decide together with them on a long-term prevention or therapy concept.
"We need personalized prevention strategies, meaning recommendations tailored to an individual’s needs. These must be determined on a case-by-case basis. Often, personal support from a coach or digital media can help individuals achieve their health goals."
Katharina Lechner
©ipopba - stock.adobe.comHow can we make personalized prevention concepts accessible to everyone?
KL: One approach is the use of new technologies, such as digital health applications, or delegating certain healthcare services to non-medical healthcare professionals. We aim to investigate a similar strategy in the population-based KORA study, under the scientific lead of Prof. Annette Peters and my medical lead. Specifically, in our new study "KORA Digital-Fit," we plan to test whether a personalized, coach-assisted, digitally supported lifestyle intervention for approximately 1,700 participants from the general population in the Augsburg area can reduce patient-relevant health outcomes compared to the current standard of care. But this project goes one step further. In addition to digital coaching support, we plan to consider genetic predisposition and integrate warnings for temperature fluctuations and heat waves. This innovative approach was initiated by Annette Peters as part of the STAGE project. The STAGE project is funded by the European Union to better understand healthy aging and to develop new prevention strategies.
How is Helmholtz Munich supporting this endeavor?
KL: The KORA cohort includes a representative group of individuals from the general population. It was established 40 years ago and systematically developed by the Institute of Epidemiology at Helmholtz Munich to this day. Thanks to KORA's longitudinal study design, we have comprehensive information on the long-term trajectories of its participants, including their lifestyle patterns and disease incidence. The KORA biobank was extensively utilized in the DigiMed Bayern project, which was funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care. Through this initiative, we now have genetic information on almost all participants. This allows us to identify individuals with an increased genetic risk and tailor our recommendations for the planned study accordingly. Additionally, the experienced and well-coordinated team at the study center in Augsburg, led by Dr. Margit Heier, which is jointly operated by Helmholtz Munich and the University Hospital Augsburg, along with the long-standing expertise of the lead KORA study coordinator Dr. Birgit Linkohr at the Institute of Epidemiology, provides the perfect infrastructure to quickly enroll and care for many KORA participants in our study. I furthermore greatly appreciate the biostatistical and meteorological expertise Dr. Susanne Breitner and Dr. Alexandra Schneider bring to our project.
If KORA Digital-Fit demonstrates your concept's effectiveness, what are the next steps?
KL: The study can be seen as a "proof-of-concept" study. Annette Peters initiated this study to demonstrate that integrating genetic information, personalized and digitally supported lifestyle changes, and considering environmental risks, can collectively lead to effective prevention strategies. Whether this will be the case remains to be seen. I further developed the intervention study by establishing quantitative health targets such as waist circumference and hand grip strength which are easy to grasp for the public. It is also important to me that digital technologies help reduce barriers and make personalized prevention concepts more accessible to the general population. For example, our partner "LIVA healthcare", which is currently already serving customers as part of the national healthcare system in the UK, is considering expanding its services to the German market within this project. This would be one of many possible steps towards broader availability of personalized prevention strategies in Germany.
More about
Prevention & Research
at Helmholtz MunichLatest update: November 2024
Find Out More About Dr. med. habil. Katharina Lechner and Connected Research
Prof. Katharina Lechner, Medical Lead of the KORA Digital-Fit Intervention Study, Research Groups “Exposomics” & “Environmental Risks”
Kontakt: katharina.lechner@helmholtz-munich.de Profil: Prof. Katharina Lechner
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