title: The Christchurch Child Development Study: a review of epidemiological findings.
abstract: The Christchurch Child Development Study is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand children who have been studied over an 11-year period using data from multiple sources including parental interview, medical records, teacher questionnaires and direct testing of children. The article provides a review of the major lines of epidemiological research examined in the Study. These include: breast feeding and child health; parental smoking and child health; the effects of low level lead exposure; childhood asthma; nocturnal bladder control; the effects of early hospital admission; the distribution of child health services; and the consequences of private medical insurance. In addition a number of general topics (sample attrition, measurement error, individual differences and causal inference) relating to longitudinal designs are discussed briefly. It is concluded that the longitudinal design is a powerful and cost-effective method of gathering data for general paediatric epidemiological purposes but that research in this area would benefit from an increased use of emerging methods of statistical modelling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Christchurch School of Medicine, New Zealand.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Fergusson
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Horwood
authors.forename: F T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Shannon
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lawton
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009520:New Zealand