OBJECTIVES To use simple measures of laterality and hand control that can identify a greater risk of poorer scholastic ability, potentially signalling suboptimal hemispheric lateralisation. DESIGN Analysis of material from a birth cohort study. SETTING Members of the National Child Development Study, a British birth cohort study following people born in 1958. PARTICIPANTS 10 612 children ...

BACKGROUND Critical to conducting high quality research is the ability to attract and retain participants, especially for longitudinal studies. Understanding participant experiences and motivators or barriers to participating in clinical research is crucial. There are limited data on healthy participant experiences in longitudinal research, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This...

OBJECTIVE To study the temporal relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and onset of chronic disabling conditions in childhood. METHOD Using parent reported data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, we compared children who developed a chronic disabling condition between the ages of 6/7 and 10/11 years with children without a chronic disabling condition at either age. L...

OBJECTIVE To investigate access to a Universal Health Home Visit program for families of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal infants and the effect of a one-off home visit on subsequent health service utilisation. METHODS A case-control study was undertaken drawing 175 Aboriginal infants from an Aboriginal birth cohort study and 352 matched non-Aboriginal infants. A structured file audit extracted ...

This study examined the association between exposure to unemployment and suicidal behaviors (suicidal ideation and attempted suicide) in a birth cohort of New Zealand young adults using fixed-effects logistic and Poisson regression models. Data were gathered on unemployment and suicidal behaviors at annual periods from ages 16-25 years. At all ages increasing exposure to unemployment was associ...

OBJECTIVE Studies have shown that children growing up in socio-economically disadvantaged families have poorer cognitive scores than children growing up in more advantaged families, and that high-quality childcare services can reduce this gap. This effect may be attenuated, however, if disadvantaged families are less likely than better-off families to use childcare and if they use childcare of ...

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Little is known about adults' future planning for long-term supports and services (LTSS), and no studies have examined how LTSS planning compares between Baby Boomers and their parents' generation. The primary aim of this study is to examine the potential influences of birth cohort and gender on LTSS planning. Drawing on Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, b...

BACKGROUND Psychiatric disorders are common during young adulthood and comorbidity is frequent. Individual psychiatric disorders have been shown to be associated with negative economic and educational outcomes, but few studies have addressed the relationship between the total extent of psychiatric disorder and life outcomes. AIMS To examine whether the extent of common psychiatric disorder be...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of menarche before 11 years of age on the incidence of wheezing/asthma in girls 11 to 18 years of age. METHODS The study sample comprised 1,350 girls from a birth cohort that started in 1993 in the urban area of the city of Pelotas, southern Brazil; this cohort was followed until 18 years of age. We assessed wheezing by the question, "Have you ever had wheezin...

BACKGROUND Evidence on the role of cannabis as a gateway drug is inconsistent. We characterise patterns of cannabis use among UK teenagers aged 13-18 years, and assess their influence on problematic substance use at age 21 years. METHODS We used longitudinal latent class analysis to derive trajectories of cannabis use from self-report measures in a UK birth cohort. We investigated (1) factors...