The Birthday book: seeking parents

We are producing a 21st birthday book to thank you for taking part in Children of the 90s for the last 21 years. We are looking for original parents from the study who would like to tell their stories. Email your full name and date of birth to info@childrenofthe90s.ac.uk with 'book' in the subject line to find out more!

Friendly, interesting, appreciating, communal, progressive

From Rachel Wiltshire, one of the Children of the 90s:

"Friendly, interesting, appreciating, communal, progressive. These words I would use to sum up my experience of Children of the 90s. I may have moved away from my hometown, but Children of the 90s makes the effort to follow me through my adult life. The questionnaires are always interesting and informative, and it is reassuring to know that my data can help fill in the gaps of a large scientific archive. The study makes me feel appreciated and valuable, and having gone to University it can be exciting to find out that someone in your year is also part of the program!

A rich resource

CO90s/ ALSPAC is a fantastic resource for scientific research. I've been involved as a researcher, study parent and (now) participant in my own right.
Its success is a testament to Professor Jean Golding and her team's original vision and energy, keeping the project going in a sometimes challenging research-funding environment; and to the ongoing dedication and enterprise of George Davey Smith's new team. CO90s will, no doubt, continue to contribute to scientific advances and improvements in population health over many years to come.
David Gunnell, Professor of Epidemiology

ALSPAC is a useful resource for investigating a range of topics relating to childhood and development. The collection of DNA has been useful in my PhD for looking at how the effects of genetic variants on clinical measures can change over time.
Researcher, University of Bristol

ALSPAC is an interesting project which provides unique insight into bone architecture and many different environmental and biological exposures. It allows us to interpret lots of data which will hopefully lead to meaningful changes to people's lives in the future.
Adrian

ALSPAC is a great resource within the School of Social & Community Medicine and the University as a whole. I hope it will continue for many years.
Anne

To a research statistician, CO90s offers such a rich data set, from both social science/attitudinal and medical research perspectives.
The depth of questioning of young participants as they have grown into adulthood is unique in terms of regularity and longitude. In addition, the medical data collected from the mothers during pregnancy, and the potentiality for follow-up 20 years on, is vast. Family structure information is also rich and the work to link to external data sets, such as education, health and police records will widen the potential for future multidisciplinary research.
It is a privilege to work with the data - and the team must be congratulated on the high quality of their documentation and data management.
Michele

Children of the 90s at MShed - what a great day!

Children of the 90s Thinker - homepage image

We had a fabulous day at MShed on Saturday: the best part of 400 visitors joined us to find out more about the astounding Children of the 90s study, and its 20-year 'journey so far'.

The Studio at MShed is a wonderful location, overlooking Bristol's historic Harbourside: so fitting, for a study that was 'born in Bristol'.

So, for one day only, participants, their families, staff, researchers, fans and people who just stumbled across us, spent time exploring the Children of the 90s Art Online website and timeline, learned how to extract DNA from fruit and vegetables (essentially the same process as we use in the labs to extract DNA from blood), and had a rare opportunity to talk to senior researchers who use Children of the 90s data.

We Tweeted live from the event and collected online contributions from participants and other visitors.

From our lovely visitors

Me at six, a keen member of CO90s!

I've loved being a member of Co90s. Looking round the exhibition has been a blast from the past! Every time I see the study in the news, it makes me feel great to have been a part of something so important.

Laura Hitchcock

A facinating insight into the project. 'Experts' approachable and very interesting. A real buzz about the exhibition. Thank you.

Anon

 

Excellent research. An inspiring vision.

Rob Freathy

A fascinating study and totally worthwhile. I am very impressed by the work to date and the plans for the future.

Anon

I think CO90s is really worthwhile, and I'm glad to have taken part in it. It's great that the research has postive implications for new parents too.

Nicole

Thank you to CO90s: You are GREAT !!

What a brilliant research method this is.

At first us Mums thought it would just be for a few years but it is still continuing and our children are in their 20's now. I am so proud to be part of it. CO90s staff have always been kind, gentle and totally professional when dealing with the family and particularly the children.

Because of CO90s, my son's short-sightedness was diagnosed when he was aged 8. Our own family doctor did not pick it up and told us he was allergic to our cats. Taking him to Focus at 8 proved he needed glasses and Bristol Eye Hospital even arranged to come to check the children.

I am so grateful for CO90s' help and advice, too, over the years, as I could always ring and ask questions and felt I had backup

Anon

Dylan blogspot 3

Hello again Co90s!

For this post, I thought I’d take a breather from research and statistics chatter and try to dispel some myths about public health researchers….

Beyond science, I suppose I’m most passionate about music. I should first state that I’m a terrible musician. But if my record collection counts for anything, I’m an exceptional music fan (I just sneak in as a relic of the pre-MP3 era). I imagine I am one of the few twenty-somethings of the iPod generation who can safely say I have more CDs than I have had girlfriends. Of course, this ratio isn’t helped by certain CDs in my collection (Will Smith’s ‘Big Willie Style, for instance).

I started writing music reviews for student publications so I could go to far more gigs than my miserly bank balance would allow, and despite this disingenuous motive, being a dissecting and discerning scribe made for quite a merry time. Amazingly, at the height of my literary fame, NME even knocked on the door and sent me along to cover some shows. I can only assume that their actual reporters had chosen the dodgy korma the night before I got the call.

In case you’re wondering, my taste in music is fairly eclectic these days, although I grew up on a staple diet of indie rock, punk and Americana. My favourite musician is probably Greg Dulli, who fronted an angsty yet soulful American rock band called the Afghan Whigs, and is now in the Twilight Singers. I’ve listened to 1965 by the Whigs more than any other album.

For posterity, let it be known that my favourite song of this year is ‘Midnight City’ by M83. It may sound like the backing vocalists are Clangers, but the sax solo at the end is a real rump shaker. And I’d say Paradise by the British duo Slow Club would be my top album of 2011, although there are other close contenders. If the fairer half of Slow Club entered the X-Factor, she’d definitely walk it.