Funder: MRC
MRC National Survey of Health & Development (MRC)
The MRC National Survey of Health and Development is the oldest and longest running continually-studied British birth cohort study, having followed a sample of 5,362 men and women born in England, Scotland and Wales since their birth in one week in March, 1946. During their childhood, the main aim of the NSHD was to investigate how the environment at home and at school affected physical and mental development and educational attainment. During adulthood, the main aim was to investigate how childhood health and development and lifetime social circumstances affected their adult health and function and how these change with age. Today, with study members in their seventies, the NSHD offers a unique opportunity to explore the long-term biological and social processes of ageing and how ageing is affected by factors acting across the whole of life.
West of Scotland Twenty-07 (WOS)
The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study is a population-based multi-cohort study which has followed three cohorts of men and women in the West of Scotland across twenty years. Set up in 1986, the study was designed to investigate the differences in health by socio-economic circumstances, gender, the place where people live, age, ethnic group and family type. Through tracking three cohorts of volunteers, each born roughly twenty years apart, the study provides data at critical points in the lifespan, as participants make the transition from adolescence to working life; through the main part of working life; and from working life to retirement. Additionally, the study was designed to explore the effect of the historical context of people’s lives on their health and circumstances by comparing the different cohorts at the same age at different points in time.
Wirral Child Health and Development Study (First Steps)
The Wirral Child Health and Development Study is a prospective epidemiological longitudinal study starting in pregnancy established in 2007 to identify early social, emotional and biological risks and processes involved in the development of childhood conduct problems. The study was designed to identify pathways to antisocial outcomes that might require differing treatment responses and to identify pathways to childhood emotional problems. Moving into adolescence, the WCHADS team are interested in additional factors important for child and adolescent mental health, including social media experiences, friendships, bullying, risky behaviours and physical, hormonal and psychological changes associated with puberty.