NSHD
The MRC National Study of Health and Development
1946 (NSHD) has collected information from birth to
the current day on the health and life circumstances of five and a
half thousand men and women born in one week in 1946.
Background
The NSHD is the oldest and longest running of
the British birth cohort studies. From an initial maternity survey
of 13,687 (82%) of all births recorded in England, Scotland and
Wales during one week of March, 1946, a socially stratified sample
of 5,362 singleton babies born to married parents was selected for
follow-up. This sample comprises the NSHD cohort and participants
have been studied 21 times.
Purpose
During childhood, the main aim 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 child health and
development and lifetime social circumstances affected adult health
and function and its change with age. Now, as participants reach
retirement, the research team is developing the NSHD into a life
course study of ageing.
Types of data collected
Childhood: weight and height,
developmental milestones, puberty, cognitive development,
educational achievement, illness, behaviour and temperament,
characteristics of the parents, the home and the school.
Adulthood: blood pressure,
lung function, body size and shape, mental and physical health,
menopause, cognitive and physical capability, health related
behaviours (including diet), marital and fertility histories, and
life circumstances.
NSHD links to additional sources of data on
cohort members include air pollution during childhood and, since
1972, deaths and cancer registrations.
Contribution
The NSHD has informed UK health care,
education and social policy for more than 50 years. Today, with
study members in their early sixties, 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. The current clinic data collection
(2006-2011) includes new measures of the heart, blood
vessels, muscles and bones, blood, saliva and urine samples for
analysis, and repeat measures of health, function and life
circumstances. The NSHD is one of nine cohort studies included in
the Healthy Ageing over the Life Course (HALCyon) collaborative
research programme which aims to improve the lives of older people
through a better understanding of how healthy ageing is affected by
social, psychological and biological factors acting across the
whole of life (http://www.halcyon.ac.uk/) .
Website: http://www.nshd.mrc.ac.uk/