About the Authors

Veikko Salomaa

veikko.salomaa@thl.fi (VS); blankenberg@2-med.klinik.uni-mainz.de (SB)

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Aki Havulinna

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Olli Saarela

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Tanja Zeller

Affiliation Department of Medicine II, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany

Pekka Jousilahti

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Antti Jula

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Thomas Muenzel

Affiliation Department of Medicine II, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany

Arpo Aromaa

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Alun Evans

Affiliation The UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

Kari Kuulasmaa

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

Stefan Blankenberg

veikko.salomaa@thl.fi (VS); blankenberg@2-med.klinik.uni-mainz.de (SB)

Affiliation Department of Medicine II, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany

Competing Interests

Dr. Blankenberg has received honoraria from Abbott Diagnostics (<10,000 USD), Roche Diagnostics (<10,000 USD) and has worked as a consultant/advisory board member for Brahms (<10,000 USD). The other authors have nothing to disclose. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: VS AE KK SB. Performed the experiments: VS PJ AJ AA SB. Analyzed the data: VS ASH OS SB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: VS TZ PJ AJ TM AA SB. Wrote the paper: VS SB. Supervised the laboratory analyses: TZ. Commented on the manuscript with important intellectual contribution: ASH OS TZ AJ TM AA AE KK.