What We Do

Birth cohort studies provide a valuable research platform for investigating today’s major research questions and evaluating how health and well-being can be improved. The Born in Bradford cohort study offers a unique window of opportunity to initiate an innovative and multidisciplinary programme of research.

The Bradford community provides a unique setting for a birth cohort study exploring the determinants of childhood and adult disease because of its diversity of population and high levels of ill-health.

Despite these challenges there is a great optimism in the city about the potential to create a better and healthier place to live and work. The people of Bradford have long shown an ability to think imaginatively and to work together for their community. This is a city where there have already been excellent examples of the health service, local government, and community groups working together.

By recruiting pregnant women, their partners and their newborn babies to the cohort, this study offers the potential to:

  • assess the determinants of childhood and adult disease
  • assess the impact of migration
  • explore the influences of pregnancy and childbirth on subsequent health
  • generate and test hypotheses that have the potential to improve health for some of the most disadvantaged within our society.

Professional Community

We work closely with Health and Education staff who play a huge part in the work of Born in Bradford.

We rely on the collection of routine measures by paediatricians, midwives, school nurses, GPs and health visitors who all have an important role to play in helping to record high quality data for us to follow up.

Born in Bradford is part of CLOSER. CLOSER, the home of longitudinal research, brings together world-leading longitudinal studies to maximise their use, value and impact and improve our understanding of key social and biomedical challenges.