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The Aberdeen Children of the 1950's (ACONF)

Population Size

12,150

People

Years

1962

Associated BioSamples

None/not available

Geographic coverage

United Kingdom

Scotland

...see more

Lead time

Not applicable

Summary

The Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (ACONF) holds health data for Aberdeen Birth Cohorts of people born in Aberdeen in 1921, 1936, and 1950-1956. It helps to understand the changes as we age and how to better our life quality as we get older.

Documentation

The Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (ACONF) is a dataset gathered through a longitudinal study from 12 150 participants born in Aberdeen between 1950 - 1956 that was repeated in 1990s, 2000s and is still ongoing. The most recent part of the study was conducted in 2021 and examined views on Covid-19.

The initial goal was to find the cause of learning disabilities among school children however, the existing dataset contents have been expanded over years to aid research in multiple fields such as health-related studies. The data includes invaluable information about the prevalence of heart disease, pregnancy details, intelligence, schooling, housing, and mental health across the generations.

Back in the 1950's, children in Aberdeen primary schools were tested by the University of Aberdeen with the Aberdeen Child Development Survey (ACDS) in maths and reading tests in December 1962. Four decades later, the survey was sent by post to all the now-adult participants with more questions about their personal life, health and living situation to draw correlation between the examined factors. The study yielded 7000 responses and was enriched by consulting the medical records. It has been possible to confirm vital status and place of residence for 98.5% of the 12,150 subjects from which 81% still lived in Scotland and 73% in the Grampian, including Aberdeen. 1431 subjects have been confirmed to be deceased (as at March 2018).

Linkages to hospital admissions and other health endpoints captured through the routine Scottish Morbidity Records system resulted in links to 41,159 hospital admission records, 1,258 cancer registrations and 1,084 psychiatric admissions (as at March 2008) and include an intergenerational linkage to 7928 deliveries in Scotland occurring to female members of the study population. A postal questionnaire to all surviving cohort members has also been distributed in 2001, with a response success rate of 63%.

Dataset type
Health and disease
Dataset sub-type
Not applicable
Dataset population size
12,150

Keywords

Aberdeen, Aberdeen Children, Children, 1950s, ACONF, Aberdeen Birth Cohorts, Ageing, Intelligence, Learning Disabilities, Pregnancy, Mental Health, Schooling, Household, Reading, Scotland Births, Heart disease, Geriatric Health

Observations

Observed Node
Disambiguating Description
Measured Value
Measured Property
Observation Date

Persons

12150

Count

03 Dec 1962

Provenance

Purpose of dataset collection
Study
Collection source setting
Community
Patient pathway description

The dataset contains information relating to Aberdeen Birth Cohorts and contains main items such as:

  1. Reading Survey Data 1962-4
  2. Family Survey Data 1964
  3. 2001 follow-up questionnaire
  4. Tracking and tracing of participants (2001 onwards)
  5. Neighbourhood and household level data (1960s)
  6. Schools data
Image contrast
Not stated
Biological sample availability
None/not available

Structural Metadata

Details

Publishing frequency
Continuous
Version
2.0.0
Modified

08/10/2024

Citation Requirements
University of Aberdeen

Coverage

Start date

03/12/1962

Time lag
Variable
Geographic coverage
United Kingdom, Scotland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire
Maximum age range
72
Follow-up
Continuous

Accessibility

Language
en
Controlled vocabulary
ICD10
Format
Text

Data Access Request

Dataset pipeline status
Not available
Time to dataset access
Not applicable
Access method category
TRE/SDE
Access service description

The Grampian Data Safe Haven

The Grampian Data Safe Haven (DaSH) is a secure, virtual healthcare data analysis and storage centre established by the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian to allow for the secure processing and linking of health data for the Grampian and Scottish population when it is not practicable to obtain consent from individual patients.

The DaSH Research Coordinators can provide advice and support in obtaining the required approvals for DaSH projects. A Permissions Pathway guide explaining the approvals process for DaSH projects is also available. In addition, DaSH has some template application forms with pre-populated information about DaSH that can be used by researchers during the permission application process as appropriate.

DaSH technology ensures unconsented healthcare, social data and other types of sensitive data are accessible for research and clinical purposes whilst protecting individuals’ privacy. Our ethos is built on working with clinicians, researchers and industry partners to improve health and social care by providing a safe and secure environment and enabling cutting-edge research.

The Grampian Data Safe Haven offers bespoke data storage, processing and linkage services based on the individual needs of your research project. The DaSH team works with researchers to provide detailed project planning and data management support whilst ensuring adherence to the highest standards of security and governance and protecting patient confidentiality.

Each project is supported by a Research Coordinator and Data Analyst to ensure projects adhere to permissions and outputs meet the project specification and comply with information security regulations. If you require non-DaSH-held datasets, we can assist with obtaining the relevant approvals, as well as coordinating the request with the data custodians and linkage between datasets.

Jurisdiction
GB-SCT
Data use limitation
Research use only
Data use requirements
Ethics approval required
Data Controller
The members of the steering group for the 'Children of the 1950s' cohort study involve collaboration between representatives of Dugald Baird Centre, University of Aberdeen and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, and the Department of Social Medicine,

University of Bristol.

The study administrator

, Heather Clark, oversees applications for access to the ACONF data. Please contact Heather at h.clark@abdn.ac.uk or +44 (0)1224 437288 if you would like more information on the study variables, or if you are interested in submitting an application to the steering committee.
Data Processor

Grampian Data Safe Haven (DaSH)

Given steering committee approval

, work with ACONF data requires a rigorous permission process and vetting of data security. Work on ACONF data is carried out in the Grampian Data Safe Haven (DaSH). DaSH provides advice on the linkage process as well as a safe facility for conducting research with linked data.

Dataset Types: Health and disease


Collection Sources: No collection sources listed