French Longitudinal Study of Children (ELFE)
ELFE is a French national birth cohort study, following children and their families for 20 years to study how the environment influences the development, health, and socialization of children. Over 18,000 children (including 289 pairs of twins) and their parents were recruited at birth from 320 maternity units across mainland France during four specific periods representing each of the four seasons in 2011. Deliveries before 33 weeks of gestation (very preterm births) were excluded from the Elfe cohort. Consequently, this cohort can serve as a control group for the Epipage 2 study of very preterm births.
Study design
Cohort - birth, Cohort - primary caregiver and child
Number of participants at first data collection
18,329 (children)
18,040 (mothers)
Age at first data collection
Birth (children)
≥ 18 years (mothers)
Participant year of birth
2011 (children)
Varied (mothers)
Participant sex
All
Representative sample at baseline?
No
Sample features
Country
Year of first data collection
2011
Primary Institutions
French National Blood Service (Etablissement Français du Sang, EFS)
French National Institute for Demographic Studies (Institut national d'études démographiques, INED)
French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, INSERM)
Profile paper DOI
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
French National Blood Service (Etablissement français du sang, EFS)
Ministry for Solidarity and Health (Ministère du Travail, de la Santé et des Solidarités)
Ministry of Culture (Ministère de la Culture)
Ministry of Ecological Transition (Ministère de la Transition écologique, de l’énergie, du climat et de la prévention des risques)
Ongoing?
Yes
Data types collected
- Computer, paper or task testing (e.g. cognitive testing, theory of mind doll task, attention computer tasks)
- Interview – online
- Interview – phone
- Physical environment assessment (e.g. pollution, mould)
- Physical or biological assessment (e.g. blood, saliva, gait, grip strength, anthropometry)
- Self-report questionnaire – online
- Self-report questionnaire – paper or computer assisted
- None
- None
- Geographic, spatial & environmental data
- Healthcare data
Engagement
Keywords
Consortia and dataset groups
