Title: Research and Policy Implications for Birth Cohort Studies in Low and Middle Income Countries: The Jamaican Studies
Summary: Few low and middle income countries (LMICs) have conducted birth cohort studies, yet birth cohort studies have the potential to provide critical information to focus interventions in countries with limited resources. Patterned from the British Birth Cohort studies, the first Jamaican Birth Cohort study enrolled 10,500 children and families (94% of the population) in 1986 and followed subsets of children to adulthood. Early family contacts investigated maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity, later contacts in childhood investigated child development outcomes, and contacts in adulthood investigated chronic diseases. The second birth cohort study, conducted 25 years after the first, enrolled 9,500 children and families. The 2011 study utilised a modified methodology based on advances in child development research, cohort study methodology and technology. More frequent follow-up was conducted in the early childhood period, and sub-sets of the cohort were followed until 2020. The 1986 birth cohort study resulted in wide-ranging policy outcomes, from improving perinatal and maternal care to contributing to national policies aimed at reducing children’s exposure to violence. The 2011 study allowed analysis of progress in maternal and child health and child development over 25 years. In 2020, the existence of the cohort also allowed for early and rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on Jamaican children and families.
Biography:
Maureen Samms-Vaughan is Professor of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour in the Dept. of Child & Adolescent Health at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus. She obtained her undergraduate training in medicine and postgraduate training in paediatrics at the UWI, and completed a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, mentored by Prof. Jean Golding. At the UWI, her research has focussed on epidemiological studies of typical and atypical development in Jamaican. Typical development has primarily been studied through birth cohort studies; atypical development has predominantly focussed on autism spectrum disorder.
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