Proposal summaries
B51 - Investigation of low bone mass to fractures in childhood - 01/01/2002
The broad aim of this project is to study the determinants of fracture risk in children using the ALSPAC cohort. ALSPAC is a large and unique dataset that recruited all pregnant women resident in Avon between April 1991 and December 1992. This has resulted in 14,000 children of whom 10,000 are under active follow-up. ALSPAC has comprehensive information from early pregnancy to now. From the time of the child's birth, many different aspects have been measured and collected on an annual basis. At aged 9, all children are undergoing a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to assess their bone mass.
This project has 4 specific aims: (1) to examine the association between bone mass measured at 9 years of age and fracture risk over the the following 2 years; (2) to examine the association between potential risk factors that are thought to affect fractures independently of bone mass (e.g. participation in sporting activities); (3) to examine the association between early life factors that are thought to effect bone accretion and subsequent peak bone mass, and lifetime fracture risk at aged 11 years (e.g. breastfeeding); and (4) to examine the association between possible endocrine determinants of early life growth (such as cord blood leptin) and lifetime fracture risk at aged 11.
B50 - Monogenic and polygenic influences on human fetal growth and development - 01/01/2002
(No outline received).
B296 - 1 The association of infant nutrition on childhood growth body composition 2 The association of infant nutrition on plasma lipid profile blood pressure in childhood - 01/01/2002
(No outline received).
B48 - Using human deciduous tooth enamel to measure prenatal exposure to trace elements and heavy metals - a new tool for epidemiology and fetal origins research - 01/01/2002
Whilst the main aim is to study asthma, we will also investigate relations with related respiratory and atopic outcomes, namely lung function, bronchial hyper-responsiveness, atopy, rhinitis and eczema.
B47 - Antecedents of attention deficit and hyperactive behaviour in childhood - 01/12/2001
The specific aims of this study are twofold: 1) to define and concurrently describe sub-groups of ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria based on parent and teacher report measures at 8 years of age. 2) to identify the factors from pregnancy through infancy, preschool and early school years that predict ADHD and test whether these are similar or different for three subtypes of ADHD and for boths sexes.
The proposed study will thus identify the affected children and provide an empirically tested model of the relevant environmental factors that increase the risk for or protect against ADHD. This information, highly relevant for developing effective preventative models. will furthermore provide the basis for future groundbreaking research at the molecular level, testing for gene-environment interactions (to be applied for separately). This will be possible due to recent developments in pinpointing promising candidate genes (Zametkin et al., 2001) and the fact that ALSPAC has DNA on 10,000 of the children and most of their mothers. Samples of paternal DNA are planned for the future.
B46 - The influence of diet physical activity levels and body composition on age at menarche in a contemporary cohort - 01/12/2001
To collect comprehensive information about diet in around 5000 10 year-old girls.
To collect anthropometric measurements by standard methods from around 5000 girls at age 10.
To obtain comprehensive information about physical activity patterns from around 5000 girls at age 10.
To obtain information on menarcheal status and pubertal stage from around 5000 girls up to age 12.5.
To relate dietary intakes and physical activty patterns to pubertal and menarcheal status.
B40 - Exposure to air pollution and respiratory illness in young children - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B38 - The development of sex typed behaviour in boys and girls a longitudinal study from 20 weeks gestation to 12 years - 01/11/2001
We propose a longitudinal, population study investigating biological and psychological processes involved in the development of gender identity, gender role behaviour and sexual orientation.
B45 - Herbalism and homeopathic medication - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B88 - Disentangling the genetic environment and psychological determinants of eating disorders - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B43 - Orthodontic proposal - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B42 - Food allergy as a risk factor for severe asthma - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B41 - Year 3 Schools Project - 01/11/2001
(No outline received).
B288 - Maternal cholesterol during gestation Low maternal serum cholesterol in early pregnancy as a predictor of adverse birth outcome - 01/10/2001
Cholesterol is an essential morphogenetic cofactor in developmental pathways that pattern the central nervous system during gastrulation and early embryogenesis. Adequate cholesterol is also an essential substrate for the rapid growth of neural tissues in the embryo and for synthesizing pregnancy-related steroid hormones. These critical morphogenetic events begin at embryonic day 14, prior to the establishment of a blood-brain barrier or feto-placental circulation, indicating that the embryo's early requirements may depend on uptake from the maternal circulation. Mothers with abnormally low levels of either total serum cholesterol or any essential lipoprotein fraction during the peri-conceptional period may be unable to supply the developing embryo with adequate cholesterol during this critical phase, resulting in pregnancy loss or the birth of infants with microcephaly and/or neuro-developmental disorders.
Specifically, we predict that mothers whose earliest prenatal total serum cholesterol value is within the lowest 5% of the study cohort will have an excess rate of pregnancy loss and an excess rate of microcephaly and of developmental delay in their offspring. The ALSPAC cohort is ideal for testing this hypothesis, because the number of study participants and the comprehensive pre-and post-natal data obtained from them permit an unbiased, carefully adjusted evaluation of the study hypothesis.
B37 - Maternal caffeine consumption during pregnancy and reproductive outcome - 01/10/2001
(No outline received).
B36 - The impact of air pollution on early life - 01/10/2001
(No outline received).
B35 - The demand and supply of schooling - 01/10/2001
(No outline received).
B34 - The determination of affective and cognitive outcomes of primary school children in Avon - 01/10/2001
The children in the ALSPAC cohort are now entering secondary school. The work already done in establishing the dataset means that there is now a unique opportunity to study in robust, quantitative and ground-breaking terms a number of crucial issues in the educational development of UK children. These studies will have important scientific benefits and implications for current and future Government policy. However, it is necessary to move quickly if the opportunity of putting the appropriate questions to the right individuals at the right times is not to be lost.
Other data collection will be occurring in ALSPAC through this phase, particularly in the fields of psychiatry and medicine and the investments made by related funding councils and others provide a platform for investments in educational research using ALSPAC.
A particular focus of the secondary school data collection in ALSPAC will be the motivation, engagement and attainments of pupils. Data collection will also concentrate on the impact on these aspects of development of family, school, policy and wider social factors. Planned reforms to the British education system for 14-19 year olds can be monitored by their impacts on this cohort of children. Social class differences in the process of engagement, choice and attainment of pupils can also be examined and quantified.
B30 - Prevalence of disability and the influence of maternal thyroid hormone levels in pregnancy - 01/09/2001
(No outline received).
B9 - The genetic factors influencing the development of asthma and atopy in different European centres - 01/09/2001
(No proposal form received).