1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
BCS70 follows the development and life experiences of a group born in a single week in 1970 in England, Scotland, and Wales. Those born in Northern Ireland were included in the birth sweep but were not followed up in subsequent sweeps. The initial cohort comprised of around 17,000 participants with data collection at birth being conducted by midwives. Participants have been followed 10 times over 50 years, with the most recent sweep in 2021, when participants were aged 51 to 52 years. During the age 34 sweep, the children of BCS70 participants took part, making the study intergenerational.
Study design
Cohort - birth, Cohort, Cohort - intergenerational
Number of participants at first data collection
16,589 (participants)
Age at first data collection
Birth (participants)
Participant year of birth
1970 (participants)
Participant sex
All
Representative sample at baseline?
Children born in 1970 in England, Scotland and Wales.
Sample features
Countries
Year of first data collection
1970
Primary Institutions
Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS)
University College London (UCL)
Profile paper DOI
Funders
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Ongoing?
Yes
Data types collected
- Activity log (e.g. food, sleep, exercise)
- Computer, paper or task testing (e.g. cognitive testing, theory of mind doll task, attention computer tasks)
- Interview – face-to-face
- Interview – online
- Interview – phone
- Physical or biological assessment (e.g. blood, saliva, gait, grip strength, anthropometry)
- Secondary data
- Self-report questionnaire – online
- Self-report questionnaire – paper or computer assisted
- Wearable devices
- Interviews or focus groups
- Qualitative survey
- None
- Geographic, spatial & environmental data
- Healthcare data
- Mortality data
- Tax, income & benefit data
Engagement
Keywords
Consortia and dataset groups
