About Our Changing Lives
Around 700,000 babies are born in this country every single year. We are already seeing the impact of new trends in today's society, such as social networking media and new waves of migration, on our daily life. We are only just beginning to appreciate the complexity of the factors that influence our health, wellbeing and prospects as we progress from childhood to old age. Furthermore, as we are rapidly becoming a much older society, we need to learn more about how to maximise the quality of life people can expect to have in the last decades of their lives.
Tracking the health and social conditions of people can help identify the range of influences that shape our health, opportunities, relationships and well-being. In the UK we have a unique resource of cohort studies which are being used to identify the major factors which affect our growth, development and lifestyle. We can investigate questions such as: 'How does the behaviour of parents affect the school performance, criminal activity or anti-social behaviour of their children?'; 'Does the health and lifestyle of pregnant mothers influence the subsequent development of their children?'
Research based on answering questions such as these has provided vital evidence for policy makers for more than sixty years and continues to provide value by contributing to our understanding of human health and behaviour.
