D2K Members

Professor Paul Burton, Professor Madeleine Murtagh, Dr Joel Minion

Website: www2.le.ac.uk/projects/birthcohort/

Wiki: https://wikis.bris.ac.uk/display/1958BC

Project 

The 1958 Birth Cohort (1958BC) recruited 98% (17,416) of all children born in Great Britain during one week in March 1958. Participants have since been followed longitudinally and have taken part in up to eight further social-science-led surveys (1965-2008) as well as a range of other special initiatives and media events. 

The 1958BC Biomedical Survey took place in 2002-2003 (cohort aged 44-45). In total, 12,037 subjects were contacted and 9,377 were interviewed. The aim was to obtain critical biomedical information via questionnaires, physical measures and biospecimen collection and to use this to examine how developmental, lifestyle, and environmental factors act throughout the lifespan to influence ill health, and physiological and psychological function in early middle age. At the same time, the creation of immortal cell lines from the biosamples in the Survey now provide an unlimited source of DNA of more than 7,500 study participants.

The 1958BC Biomedical Resource that now integrates all the data and samples from the biomedical survey has subsequently provided a wonderful enabling resource for UK Bioscience. 58READIE secures sustainability of data and sample access and strategic development of the Resource with three complementary objectives:

• secure the basic infrastructure
• enhance the infrastructure from an administrative and strategic management perspective
• enhance the infrastructure from a scientific perspective.