LONDON – A new £33.5 million project is to follow the lives of 90,000 British children from birth in the hope of finding out more about what makes society healthy and happy, it was announced yesterday.
Science minister David Willetts said that the project – to be launched in 2012 – would be the largest yet in a series of “cohort studies” dating back to 1946, and nearly five times the size of the last such study, which began in 2000.
For the first time, samples will be collected from parents as well as children to reveal more about how different social, economic, biological, environmental and health factors play a role in young people’s life chances.
Children from all backgrounds and all parts of the UK will be recruited into the “Birth Cohort Facility Study”. Previous studies have produced research into subjects ranging from the dangers of excessive drinking, the consequences of teenage births and the role that child growth and development plays in cardiovascular disease. – (PA)