There are several studies that have examined the role of personality in pro-environmental attitudes or behaviours. However, they typically investigate either attitudes or behaviours. Environmental attitudes and behaviours have been identified as an area with a significant gap between attitude and behaviour. We wish to address this gap by examining whether personality traits are predictive of both attitude and behaviour, and whether those who have pro-environmental attitudes and perform pro environmental behaviours differ from those who do not. Using the ALSPAC dataset will allow us to examine personality and its role in pro-environmental variables longitudinally.

The National Mental Health Intelligence Network (NMHIN) has been commissioned by NHSE to determine whether an estimate of mental health need for 0–4-year-olds can be produced, with the aim of being able to produce national and local area prevalence estimates for this age group.

This work included an initial feasibility assessment which was advised by an expert reference group (ERG) of experts in the field. The ERG gave a strong steer of using an existing cohort study that assesses the mental health of the children in this age group, considering limited availability of data around the topic which can be generalized at national level.

Currently, we are looking at developing an interim national prevalence that gives an estimate of mental health need among this age group. This will be done by selecting a study sample from ALSPAC, looking at the mental health outcomes of the study group and then applying the prevalence at a national and local level.

X-linked, red-green colour blindness (CVD) is a congenital condition affecting 8% of men (0.4% of women). Depending on type and severity, affected individuals have significant difficulties discriminating a wide range of colours facing wide-ranging challenges on a day-to-day basis (e.g. interpreting colour-coded information at the workplace or recreational environments). A growing impact is expected in educational settings due to an increasing reliance on colour resources in schools. Unfortunately, a study using a birth cohort from 1958 (Cumberland et al, 2004) has reported a lack of impact of colour blindness on Maths and reading ability but fails to account for the increase in colour in classrooms in recent years. Regrettably the publication led to the cessation of CVD school screening in 2009, preventing children from accessing more appropriate resources.
In contrast, a number of authors have argued that CVD can increase difficulties experienced in a range of school subjects including Sciences, Maths, Art, PE and Geography as such subjects may use colour to explain concepts, give instructions and require it in problem solving tasks. Alongside any academic implications, CVD has been found to have an effect on social, psychological and emotional outcomes. For example CVD children may experience teasing from classmates.
We here propose to investigate the potential impacts of CVD on education and emotional outcomes in a more recent cohort.

Analytical approaches which disentangle heterogeneous effects on trait susceptibility provide important insight on the relationship between complex traits and disease. Lifecourse Mendelian randomization (MR) is a novel statistical approach which has been developed to address lifecourse specific effects on disease susceptibility (1, 2, 3). Additionally, stratifying instrumental variables based on tissue derived gene expression data provides further molecular context to interpret the effect (4, 5).

Evaluation of the relationship between lifecourse and tissue dependent effects on biomarkers measured in early life provides important insight on key etiological and susceptibility windows of disease. The results of a recent analysis have provided evidence of a direct effect for the brain-mediated component of body-size on the adipose tissue secreted hormone leptin measured at age 10 in the lifecourse (Richardson et al, in revision). Through the integration of tissue-specific data, this approach highlights the etiological importance of appetite regulation in the links between adiposity and leptin levels in early life.

Additionally, this study also showed evidence for an effect of adult body-size on circulating leptin measured in childhood (when accounting for the effect of early life body size), which is directionally implausible. This raises the possibility that the adult derived exposure may be a strong predictor for traits in early life which have an effect on childhood leptin levels. In this project we will further characterize the relationship between adult body size and early life adiposity measures and a range of childhood biomarkers to refine the interpretation of this causal relationship.

References:

1. Richardson TG, Sanderson E, Elsworth B, Tilling K, Davey Smith G. Use of genetic variation to separate the effects of early and later life adiposity on disease risk: mendelian randomisation study. BMJ. 2020;369:m1203.
2. Richardson TG, Power GM, Davey Smith G. Adiposity may confound the association between vitamin D and disease risk - a lifecourse Mendelian randomization study. Elife. 2022;11.
3. Sanderson E, Richardson TG, Morris TT, Tilling K, Davey Smith G. Estimation of causal effects of a time-varying exposure at multiple time points through multivariable mendelian randomization. PLoS Genet. 2022;18(7):e1010290.
4. Leyden GM, Shapland CY, Davey Smith G, Sanderson E, Greenwood MP, Murphy D, et al. Harnessing tissue-specific genetic variation to dissect putative causal pathways between body mass index and cardiometabolic phenotypes. Am J Hum Genet. 2022.
5. Leyden GM, Greenwood MP, Gaborieau V, Han Y, Amos CI, Brennan P, et al. Disentangling the aetiological pathways between body mass index and site-specific cancer risk using tissue-partitioned Mendelian randomisation. Br J Cancer. 2022.

Studies conducted using animals have been instrumental in describing the brain impairment and physiological processes that cause prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Research has shown that similar brain and physiological features are likely to be affected in those displaying
increase criminality and behavioral disorders. Some features affected include inattention, impulsivity, the poor executive functioning, impulse control, memory and cause and effect thinking.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is attributed to the effects of PAE, and has been associated with a two to six fold increase in mental disorder diagnosis in offsprings of alcohol binge drinking mothers. Youths with FASD are 19 times more likely to end up incarcerated than those without. Cigarette smoking and illicit drugs used in pregnancy also contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes and are important risk factors of criminality.

Offspring of mothers who drank during pregnancy especially heavy drinking of greater than 21 units a week, will be at an increased risk for adolescents antisocial activities and conversely criminal activities in adulthood. It is also likely that there is a positive relationship between the quantity of alcohol used and number and intensity of antisocial activities and criminal activities.

Systemic inflammation is associated with increased risk in the development of atherosclerosis as well as other cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Recent trials have thus investigated whether immunotherapies may decrease the risk of CVD (Ridker et al. 2017; Tardif et al. 2019; Liberale et al. 2021). However, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding which inflammatory proteins may play an aetiological and/or mediating role, and thereby may be potential therapeutic targets in the prevention of CVD. We seek to investigate the associations of the 92 Olink inflammatory proteins, measured in approximately 3000 mothers, 3000 children at age 9 and another 3000 children at age 24, with changes in carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), pulse wave velocity (PWV) and blood pressures. We will also perform the analyses on the inflammatory biomarkers Glyoprotein Acetyls (GlycA) and C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as IL-6 measured in the 9-year-olds via clinical chemistry, since IL-6 is the only protein measured by Olink that has been measured previously in ALSPAC to be used as a validation.

In the United Kingdom, 10-15% of school-aged children have a special educational need (SEN). Children with SENs have impairments in language, learning, cognition, and social functioning. The diagnostic criteria for SENs are not, however, always fit for purpose. At-risk children can be missed or mislabelled meaning that they go without the support they need. This is compounded by the fact that SENs often co-occur with mental health difficulties but diagnostically they are usually considered separate. Therefore, a fundamental rethink of how children’s SENs and mental health difficulties are conceptualised is needed.
We will use data from two large UK-based datasets to 1) investigate the inter-relations between, and clustering of, SENs and mental health difficulties. Rather than looking at diagnoses, we will focus on how underlying strengths and difficulties in language, learning, cognition, social functioning, and mental health co-occur. In doing this, we will identify skills dimensions that map directly on to children’s needs, regardless of diagnostic label. Next, 2) we will investigate how these dimensions of skills cluster in children and how they compare with existing diagnostic labels in predicting children’s outcomes.
Finally, 3) we will identify environmental pathways through which risk is transmitted whilst controlling for genetic confounding. This will determine who and which environments should be the targets for early intervention to mitigate genetic risk for SENs and mental health difficulties.The proposed project will, therefore, mark a fundamental shift in how SENs and mental health difficulties are conceptualised, identified, and how at-risk children are supported.

The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium invites ALSPAC and Bristol researchers’ to take part in a large GWAS of lipid traits (incl. high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and triglycerides). The main aims of CHARGE’s GWAS are to (1) identify novel loci for lipids trait separately by sex; (2) identify gene-alcohol consumption interaction effects on lipid traits separately by sex. These analyses will follow the ‘Phase II Analysis Plan for Alcohol and Lipids’ version 2.0 provided by CHARGE. Only GWAS summary statistics will be shared with CHARGE. Based on the GWAS results, subsequent analyses (e.g. validation of the gene-by-environment effects using longitudinal data of lipid traits, and Mendelian randomization) would be suggested by CHARGE.

Previous studies have demonstrated that loneliness is related to poorer health outcomes across a range of health conditions and traits. However, it is unclear whether these represent causal relationships i.e., increased loneliness leads to poorer health outcomes and what the direction of effect is if so. In addition, further investigation is needed to examine the extent of the impact of loneliness across a range of physical and mental health outcomes. In this project we will examine this further.