Large child cohort studies across the world

Abstract

Researchers fi rst began tracking cohorts of children in the years following World War II. Their efforts were initially rather sporadic and it was not until the 1990s that large numbers of child cohort studies were launched in different countries, notably the United States, Canada and Australia. Great Britain is largely credited with pioneering longitudinal studies of representative samples of children on a national scale. The fi rst such study, the 1946 National Birth Cohort, received the backing of the Royal College of Obstetricians and the Population Investigation Committee, and the data collection was funded by the Nuffi eld Foundation and the National Birthday Trust Fund. Encompassing all children born between 3 and 9 March in England, Scotland and Wales, it was designed to help British institutions and government bodies, not least the Royal Commission on Population, address various health and social policy issues, such as the reasons behind the fall in fertility since the mid-nineteenth century and the prevention of infant mortality and preterm births. © I.N.E.D. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.