Research

Ongoing projects

Weight loss during termtime in an English public school: its scale, the factors affecting it, and its impact on adult weight gain – Tim Cole, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (approved 04/02/2026)

Extending the SITAR growth curve model to handle weight through puberty – Tim Cole, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (approved 06/08/2025)

Publications

• Hughes, R.A., et al. Combining longitudinal data from different cohorts to examine the life-course trajectory, American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(12): 2680–2689 (2021)
• Cole T.J. Optimal design for longitudinal studies to estimate pubertal height growth in individuals. Ann Hum Biol, 45:314-20 (2018).
• Simpkin, A. J., et al. Modelling height in adolescence: a comparison of methods for estimating the age at peak height velocity. Annals of Human Biology, 44(8), 715–722 (2017).
• Sovio U, et al. Association between Common Variation at the FTO Locus and Changes in Body Mass Index from Infancy to Late Childhood: The Complex Nature of Genetic Association through Growth and Development. PLOS Genetics 7(2): e1001307, (2011).
• Cole T.J., et al. SITAR–a useful instrument for growth curve analysis. Int J Epidemiol, 39:1558-66 (2010).
• Cole T.J., et al. Nonlinear growth generates age changes in the moments of the frequency distribution: the example of height in puberty. Biostatistics, 9:159-71 (2008).
• Lawlor, D.A., et al. Association of body mass index measured in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood with risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke: findings from 3 historical cohort studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 83(4):767-773 (2006).
• Sandhu, J., et al. The impact of childhood body mass index on timing of puberty, adult stature and obesity: a follow-up study based on adolescent anthropometry recorded at Christ's Hospital (1936–1964). Int J Obes, 30, 14–22 (2006).
• Friend G.E. The schoolboy: a study of his nutrition, physical development and health. Cambridge: Heffer; 1935.