Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study

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The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (often also referred to as the Dunedin Longitudinal Study for short ) is a long-term cohort study which, as its name suggests, aims to capture the health and development characteristics of children in their adult lives as a multidisciplinary study . It originally includes 1,037 people born between April 1, 1972 and March 31, 1973 in Dunedin , New Zealand . The study was initiated by Phil A. Silva from the University of Otago and was largely responsible for the research until 1999. In 1994 he was awarded the title of Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for Health and Education Services. In total (as of 2015) more than 1200 specialist articles and reports have been published within the scope of the study.

Study design and history

The actual long-term study was preceded by a pilot study in which 250 four- and five-year-old children born in 1968 were examined. The pilot was led by Phil Silva, a former teacher and educational psychologist. The pilot study was based on a larger study of perinatal health carried out by pediatrician Patricia Buckfield between 1968 and 1974.

Participation was conditional on the initial pool of study participants being selected from children born at the Queen Mary Maternity Center , a public hospital in Dunedin, who lived in the wider Otago region three years later . In the early years, the study struggled with financial problems.

535 men and 503 women took part in the study, 12 of whom were pairs of twins. The study participants were aged three years and then further at the age of 5 (n = 991), 7 (n = 954), 9 (n = 955), 11 (n = 925), 13 (n = 850), 15 (n = 976), 18 (n = 993), 21 (n = 992), 26 (n = 980), 32 years and most recently at the age of 38 years (2010–2012). Future assessments are planned for the 44th and 50th years of life. "Phase 45" began in April 2017.

Since 2000, the psychologist and university professor Richie Graham Poulton (* 1962) has been the director of the study. According to an estimate of 38 years, only a third of the members lived in Dunedin, while most of the rest of them had moved to the rest of New Zealand and Australia. Some lived in Europe, including the UK, North America, etc. However, a very large number (around 97%) of the subjects continued to participate in the study.

The multidisciplinary aspect of the study has always been central, with information from the following areas:

  • Cardiovascular Health and Risk Factors
  • Respiratory health
  • Oral and dental hygiene
  • Sexual and reproductive health
  • Mental health
  • Psychosocial functioning
  • other health issues and deliquant behavior issues .

literature

  • Phil A. Silva: From child to adult: the Dunedin multidisciplinary health and development study. Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Richie Poulton, Terrie E. Moffitt, Phil A. Silva: The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study: overview of the first 40 years, with an eye to the future. In: Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. Volume 50, 2015, pp. 679-693, doi : 10.1007 / s00127-015-1048-8 , PMID 25835958 , PMC 4412685 (free full text).
  • TE Moffitt, A. Caspi, M. Rutter, PA Silva: Sex differences in antisocial behavior: Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the Dunedin longitudinal study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 0-511-49005-4 .
  • JD Schaefer, A. Caspi, DW Belsky, H. Harrington, R. Houts, LJ Horwood, A. Hussong, S. Ramrakha, R. Poulton, TE Moffitt: Enduring mental health. In: Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Volume 126, No. 2, 2017, pp. 212-224.

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ^ Alina Pöge: Classifications and courses of delinquent behavior. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8309-6912-9 , pp. 61-63. (books.google.de)