Alpha1-antitrypsin as a risk for infant and adult respiratory outcomes in a national birth cohort.

Reduced alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) encoded by the gene SERPINA1 is a potential risk for pulmonary disease. We investigated SERPINA1 polymorphism as a risk for infant and adult pulmonary morbidity, and adult respiratory function and its change between 43 and 53 yr. We used data on a British national representative sample (n = 5,362) studied since birth in 1946 to age 53 yr (when n = 3,035), when DNA was first obtained.

The life course prospective design: an example of benefits and problems associated with study longevity.

Although the life course prospective study design has many benefits, and information from such studies is in increasing demand for scientific and policy purposes, it has potential inherent design problems associated with its longevity. These are in particular the fixed sample structure and the data collected in early life, which are each determined by the scientific principles of another time and the risk over time of increased sample loss and distortion through loss. The example of a national birth cohort in Britain, studied from birth so far to age 53 years is used to address these questions.

Food and nutrient intake of a national sample of 4-year-old children in 1950: comparison with the 1990s.

Objective: To evaluate the food and nutrient intake of members of a birth cohort study when young children in 1950 and investigate differences from present-day children's diets.

Design: One-day recall diet records from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) (1946 Birth Cohort) at age 4 years were analysed for energy and selected nutrients and compared to the published results for 4-year-olds in the 1992/93 National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS).

Setting: England, Scotland and Wales in 1950 and 1992/93.

Loss and representativeness in a 43 year follow up of a national birth cohort.

Study Objective: The aim was to describe rates of loss and assessment of representativeness during 43 years of a national birth cohort study.

Design: The study population is a class stratified random sample of all single, legitimate births that occurred during one single week in 1946; it has been studied at regular intervals, so far to 1989.

Main Results: Losses through death and emigration were comparable to those in the national population of the same age.

Assessment of severity in colitis: a preliminary study.

Clinical features, alone and in combinations of up to five, noted early in patients during 181 admissions to one hospital for treatment of acute colitis over five years, have been correlated with the success or failure of drug treatment as judged by death during medical treatment or the need for urgent surgical treatment. Many of the 56 clinical features studied were of no value in predicting the outcome of the attack. The four features of greatest predictive value were the maximum daily body temperature, the maximum daily pulse rate, the bowel frequency and plasma albumin.