Cohort profile: 1958 British birth cohort (National Child Development Study)

Abstract

The 1958 birth cohort or the National Child Development Study (NCDS) began as a study of Perinatal Mortality focussing on just over 17 000 births in a single week in 1958. To address concerns regarding the stillbirth rate not falling, the original study aimed to identify social and obstetric factors linked to stillbirth and neonatal death. The findings contributed to the improvement of maternity services in Britain and to a reduction in perinatal mortality.¹ The initial survey was not planned as a longitudinal study, but subsequently the National Children's Bureau was commissioned by the Central Advisory Council for Education (The Plowden Committee) to retrace the cohort at age 7 and monitor their educational, physical, and social development.² Further surveys took place when children were aged 11 and 16.^3,4 This cohort was educated during a period when there was considerable debate about the nature of primary schooling, the selection for secondary school (the ‘eleven-plus’) was being abolished, and the comprehensive sector of secondary schooling was expanding. The school leaving age was raised to 16 yr in 1973 making cohort members part of the first year group required to stay on at school for an extra year. Divorce rates, though rising during the 1960s, were still relatively low and most of this cohort lived with both parents throughout their childhood. In other respects, the cohort grew up in an environment which differed from that experienced by children today, with proportionately more children living in houses that lacked basic amenities, although access to welfare provision, such as free school meals, was available. Breast-feeding was relatively common, and so too was maternal smoking in pregnancy. This generation was not exposed to the levels of childhood obesity seen nowadays and rates of teenage drug taking were low.