Children of the 90s

Participants contribute their health data in many ways, and this is how we build up a detailed picture of population health.

Face to face visits 

We regularly invite our participants to visit us for a clinic. When you come, you’ll have your height and weight measured, we will take blood and saliva samples and look at a range of measures to understand your health. This might include DXA scans, liver scans, fitness and cognitive testing. 

If you or your partner are pregnant or have children, we'd love to hear from you. Find out more about our family clinics here.

Questionnaires 

Questionnaires form an important part of our study, and we will contact you via email when a new questionnaire is out. If you have recently changed your email address, please let us know via our online form.

Filling in the gaps

Children of the 90s also follows the study participants’ health and life events by linking to official records such as health records held by the NHS (GP and hospital data), plus education and employment records.

This is known as ‘data linkage’ and gives researchers detailed health information that is difficult to get using questionnaires or at clinic. For example, it might include the precise dose of an antibiotic you were given as a baby. It also helps make sure the study represents all the original participants, including those who are unable to complete questionnaires or attend clinics. As this way, their official health data is collected and analysed and less data is ‘missed’.

Sub-studies

Researchers sometimes invite participants to get involved in smaller research projects called sub-studies. For example, the latest sub-study will explore if we can learn more about health by analysing store card data, such as Nectar card to see how our shopping habits can be used to predict changes in our health.