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An investment with an ongoing return

Cohort studies provide valuable information for research purposes. By monitoring and tracking the health, well-being, education and changing circumstances of individuals, we can see how these relate, for example, to whether people lose their job, leave a relationship or if government changes the way it delivers public services. This type of information collected by cohort studies enables researchers to examine for systematic relationships between events which occur during an individual's life course and the wide variety of factors that shape such events. Examples include:

The links between child development, early years care and parenting.
Autism spectrum disorders, education and later life outcomes.
Diet before and during pregnancy, child and maternal health.
Higher education and related career outcomes.
Intergenerational support and elderly care.

Genetic information and other detailed measurements relating to health and disease play an important part in aiding our understanding of the complex links between the structure of the human genome (the 'building blocks' of life), gene expression (the ways in which certain genes interact with their environment), patterns of behaviour and the external environment. Cohort studies are invaluable as sources of information which help scientists to understand better and ultimately to unravel the complexity of these relationships. It is for these reasons that many of the cohort studies now routinely collect biological specimens on a voluntary basis from cohort study participants.

As more information is collected in the continuing cohort studies, investment in such studies has a ongoing and growing return in terms of the way they contribute to our understanding of human health and behaviour.