Health / Young & Old (Age)
The extraordinary story of our ordinary lives
Participants in the world-famous Children of the 90s study into human life will speak at a panel discussion at the University of Bristol.
The project charting the health of 14,500 families in the Bristol area since the early 1990s is under the microscope at an event looking at the study of human development.
Two participants in the study – Tom Vlietstra and Claire Bishop – will speak alongside researchers who have been charting the changes since they were born.
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They will also be joined by author Helen Parsons speaking about her book The Life Project: The extraordinary story of our ordinary lives which follows the stories of a separate study started in 1946, tracking some of the best-studied people on the planet.
The Children of the 90s study is conducted by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and has been collecting everything from nail clippings and locks of hair to umbilical cords and placentas since the 90s in the name of improving the future health of the human race.
To date, the results gathered from the participants have contributed in the production of over 1,000 academic papers, attracting national and international attention.
The two participants on the panel will speak alongside clinical paediatrician John Henderson, who is specialising in asthma in the study and Becky Mars, who researches self-harm and suicide in the cohort. Mars is currently using data from Children of the 90s to look at why some young people act on suicidal thoughts whereas others do not.
Vlietstra has been a Children of the 90s participant since birth, and a member of their advisory panel since he was 13. He is currently completing his practitioner doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey.
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