Boyd-Orr Cohort Study
The Boyd Orr cohort is an historical cohort study carried out by the University of Bristol Department of Social Medicine to investigate the long term impact of children’s diet, growth, living conditions and health on adult cardiovascular disease. It is based upon based on the 65 year follow-up of the Carnegie Survey of Diet and Health (1937-9).
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It is based on the long term follow-up of 4,999 children who were surveyed in the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust’s study of Family Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain (1937-1939). With funding from the British Heart Foundation, the cohort was established in 1988 by Professors George Davey Smith and Stephen Frankel who retrieved the original research records of the pre-war survey from the Rowett Research Institute.
The Carnegie Survey was the brainchild of Sir (later Lord) John Boyd Orr, director of the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen from 1914 to 1945. The original research was funded by a grant of £15,000 to the Rowett Research Institute from the trustees of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Key members of the original survey team were David Lubbock (research administrator), John Pemberton and Angus Thomson (medical examinations) and Isabel Dods (supervision of the diet survey team).
Subsequent work on the cohort has been funded by grants from the Medical Research Council (UK), the World Cancer Research Fund, Research into Ageing, UK Survivors, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation.
Findings from the cohort to date have investigated a range of disease endpoints, particularly coronary heart disease and cancer, in relation to infant and childhood diet, and markers of childhood nutritional status (body mass index, leg length and height).
This site contains the study documentation, results of research and terms and conditions of collaboration.
