Introducing longitudinal population studies – the Health and Employment After Fifty Study and the Wirral Child Health and Development Study

In 2020, CLOSER welcomed 11 new longitudinal studies to our consortium, broadening the range of biomedical and social science disciplines represented within the group. But how can researchers make the most of longitudinal population studies and the data they collect?

This webinar series aims to showcase a number of longitudinal population studies to researchers who may be otherwise unfamiliar with the study data, what it can offer, and data access arrangements. The series is designed to introduce researchers to new studies that could be of use to them in their longitudinal research and investigations.

Over the coming months, CLOSER will host a series of hour-long webinars giving participants the opportunity to learn about two different studies. Each study presentation will cover:

• An overview of the study
• What data has been collected
• How to access the data
• Research case studies
• Q&A

The Wirral Child Health and Development Study and the Health and Employment After Fifty Study

The next webinar in this series will showcase the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) and the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) Study.

Prof Helen Sharp will introduce WCHADS which follows the lives of over a thousand families from when the mothers were pregnant with their firstborns back in 2006. All the families were recruited during their first appointment for antenatal care at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral peninsula in Merseyside, North West England. The study was established to find out why some children develop behaviour problems from an early age and what factors lead to them persisting and is still going strong collecting data as the children mature into adolescence.

Stefania D’angelo will explore the HEAF Study which was set up in 2013 to assess the health benefits and risks of working at older ages and to help understand whether common health conditions could limit work capabilities in later life. The study follows the lives of over 8,000 men and women aged 50-64, collecting detailed information about their work, health, wellbeing, pain, sleep, mood, caring responsibilities and finances on an annual basis.