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Abstract
Assessment of health in large population studies has increasingly incorporated measures of blood-based biomarkers based on the use of dried blood spots (DBS). The validity of DBS assessments made by labs used by large studies is addressed by comparing assay values from DBS collected using conditions similar to those used in the field with values from whole blood samples. The DBS approach generates values that are strongly related to whole blood levels of HbA1c, cystatin C, and C-reactive protein. Assessing lipid levels reliably with DBS appears to be a greater challenge. However, even when DBS values and values from venous blood are highly correlated, they are often on a different scale, and using conventional cutoffs may be misleading.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging through grants to the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (P30 AG17265), the Network on Measurement of Biological Risk (R24 AG037898), and the Health and Retirement Study (U01 AG009740).