Professor Diana Kuh
Professor Diana Kuh is the Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong
Health and Ageing and of the MRC National Survey of Health and
Development and is the Principal investigator for HALCyon, a cross cohort research programme
on healthy ageing.
Diana has a first degree in Economics from Cambridge University
and a PhD from the London School of Economics on early life
influences on adult health. She was a research fellow at Exeter
University (in the Institute of Biometry and Community Medicine and
the Department of Child Health) before joining the MRC National
Survey of Health and Development in 1987. She was made Professor of
Life Course Epidemiology at University College London in 2003.
Diana uses data from the MRC National Survey of Health and
Development to study how biological, psychological and social
factors at different stages of life, independently, cumulatively or
interactively affect adult physical capability and musculoskeletal
function and their change with age. She also uses this life course
approach to study women's health, cardiovascular health and
wellbeing.
Diana is internationally recognised for the advancement of the
field of life course epidemiology where she is the author of the
acknowledged key texts: "A life course approach to chronic disease
epidemiology" (2nd edition Oxford University Press 2004, with
Professor Yoav Ben-Shlomo) and "A life course approach to women's
health" (Oxford University Press 2002, with Dr Rebecca Hardy).
Diana has published over 200 articles in a wide range of
peer-reviewed journals.
Edited Books
Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y. A life course
approach to chronic disease epidemiology: tracing the origins of
ill-health from early to adult life. 2nd edition. Fully
revised. Oxford University Press 2004 (463 pages).
Kuh D, Hardy, R. A life course approach to
women’s health. Oxford University Press 2002 (419 pages).
Selected recent publications
Ong KK, Bann D, Wills AK, Ward K, Hardy R, Kuh
D. Timing of voice breaking in
males associated with growth and weight gain across the life
course. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
2012 May 3.
Wills AK, Black S, Cooper R, Coppack RJ, Hardy R, Martin KR,
Cooper C, Kuh D. Life
course body mass index and risk of knee osteoarthritis at the age
of 53 years: evidence from the 1946 British birth cohort study.
Annuals of Rheumatic Disease 2012 May;71(5):655-60.
Mishra G and Kuh D. How
do health symptoms during midlife relate to menopausal transition?
A British prospective cohort study. BMJ
2012;344:e402.
Murray ET, Hardy R, Strand BH, Cooper R, Guralnik, JM and
Kuh, D. Gender and life
course socioeconomic differences in trajectories of functional
limitations in mid-life: findings from the 1946 British Birth
Cohort. Journal of Gerontology A: Biological Sciences and
Medical Sciences, 2011 Dec;66(12):1350-9.
Cooper R, Hardy R, Aihie Sayer A, Ben-Shlomo Y, Birnie K, Cooper
C, Craig L, Deary IJ, Demakakos P, Gallacher J, McNeill G, Martin
RM, Starr JM, Steptoe A, Kuh D. (2011) Age and Gender Differences in Physical Capability
Levels from Mid-Life Onwards: The Harmonisation and Meta-Analysis
of Data from Eight UK Cohort Studies. PLoS one
2011;6(11):e27899.
Cooper R, Mishra, G, Kuh D. Physical Activity Across Adulthood and Physical
Performance in Midlife: Findings from a British Birth Cohort.
American Journal of Preventative Medicine October 2011, Vol.
41, No. 4.
Henderson M, Hotopf M, Shah I, Hayes RD, Kuh D.
Psychiatric disorder in early adulthood and
risk of premature mortality in the 1946 British Birth Cohort.
BMC Psychiatry 2011 Mar 8;11:37.
Kuh D, Pierce M, Adams J, Deanfield J, Ekelund
U, Friberg P, Ghosh AK, Harwood N, Hughes A, MacFarlane P, Mishra
G, Pellerin D, Stephen AM, Wong A, Richards M, Hardy R on behalf of
the NSHD scientific and clinic data collection teams. Cohort Profile: Updating the cohort profile for the
MRC National Survey of Health and Development: a new clinic-based
data collection for ageing research. International Journal
of Epidemiology 2011;e1-9.
Cooper R, Kuh D, Hardy R and the Mortality
Review Group on behalf of the FALCon and HALCyon study teams.
Objectively measured physical capability
levels and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BMJ 2010;341:c4467.
Wills AK, Hardy R, Black S, Kuh D. Trajectories of overweight and body mass index in
adulthood and blood pressure at age 53: the 1946 British birth
cohort study. Journal of Hypertension 2010;
28(4):679-686.