Uncover The Life Project: How The Study Of Six Generations Showed Us Who We Are By Helen Pearson Available In Physical Edition

is difficult to know whether to give more praise to Helen Pearsons pageturning narrative that so livens up the subject or the massive cohort studies themselves, and all the effort that has gone into keeping them alive, not to mention what they have provided for government factbased decision making.
I had expected, almost hoped for, tables of statistics and countless graphs, . . and was pleasantly disappointed theres only one graph, albeit a remarkable one, Around the world somecohort studies from birth are presently in process thanks to Britains lead started in, By following thousands of subjects at a time, often well over,, they are tracking and connecting countless causes and effects in health and wellbeing, A sort of scientific Parkinsons Law regarding what data to collect has meant that they have become increasingly expensive and

prone to cuts, The advent of cheap and easy computing, together with DNA testing and genetics and so many other advances in science and technology and resulting questions posed, have tended to overcomplicate what has always been a dream for epidemiologists and social scientists.
The studies have also become challenged in other ways by the publication of endless studies of one sort or another that have dispelled previous beliefs, about good and bad foods, for example, and thereby created a credibility issue phenomena such as Facebook unintentionally linking cohort subjects the fear of leaks of confidential information the need for cohort subjects to trek to suitably equipped centres rather than being visited by health visitors as was once the case.
No doubt the fact that as everyone gets older it may become the studies themselves that highlight issues that would not have otherwise been detected and end up influencing their subjects destiny, thereby contradicting the need for impartiality.
Since one conclusion that had consistently appeared over theyears of studies is the disparity in life expectancy and success in life according to social class and circumstances at birth, there is an inevitable political undertone to it all.
It all seems rather socialist, But it is a fact that these studies have repeatedly found that poverty has had a major influence on perinatal mortality, achievement and mental and physical health in later life.
So what about current increasing disparities in wealth
Whatever the political slant, the studies have also highlighted such phenomena as the surge
in obesity from thes.
It is extraordinary to think that, in this modern age and the evidence now collected, debates should continue to rage about subjects such as single parenting, grammar versus comprehensive schools not significantly different, class size at school ditto, the merits of labour induction, pain relief and Csection at birth, or whether births should take place at home, at the doctors now defunct or in hospital where in fact perinatal mortality had been higher, the negative effects of electromagnetic radiation on children, of chemical exposure and pollution, and soon.

There have been so many significant facts established, for example proof of the link between smoking and lung cancer and perinatal mortality between air pollution experienced in early life and health problems and cardiovascular disease later on the correlation between low birth weight with blood pressure in peoples thirties the link between baby health and hand grip in peopless the phenomenon of foetal programming, even the experiences of ancestors leaving and effect via a mothers eggs, present from birth having an influence on later life the link between childrens calorie intake and cancer at a later age the breastfeeding link with IQ and the disadvantages faced by expectant mothers who were hospitalised at weekends thereby receiving less breastfeeding encouragement and training the positive effect of regular bedtimes the absolute importance of parental interest and engagement on later age the importance of the home atmosphere and early reading on educational success the more effective methods of learning to read the early influences on delinquency that diseases and problems such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and psychiatric problems had gestation periods of decades and could be spotted coming the negative effect of drinking while pregnant the negative effects of corporal punishment the higher rates of mortality occurring among those with lower grade jobs.
And soon: all lifechanging stuff,
This book is, unlike many books about science, the story of the project itselfhow the strong personalities who initially ran the birth cohorts struggled to keep them going in a sea of shifting politics, economic crises, and increasing competition with other projects.
And, as someone who trained in science, I very much appreciate that, Most studies are funded by a grant or series of grants, but the story is rarely as interesting as the one here, because the birth cohort studies are so much more longitudinal.
As Pearson emphasizes several times, some of the most significant results from these birth cohorts might not even be available until the original principal investigators PIs are dead.
Which, of course, makes it all the more challenging to get funding from a politician who's worrying about reelection within the next few years,

Terminology is geared at the British layperson and I say this because, while all of the science terms were explained, some of the Britishisms were notalthough there is some dry selfreferential humor explained at a level suitable for Americans.
You won't have any trouble following what is happening, although at times it's dry, I can't tell if this is because of the repetition of terms, or because the subject matter is simply that way,

Aside from the history of Britain's birth cohorts, there's limited valuable insight into other countries' attempts at setting up their own studies and some brief but important bits on the lacunae in knowledge when it comes to ethnic/racial minorities, and again the challenges of political climate when it comes to public funding.
As well as the dangers of attempting a study that is too complex, as happened with the NIH's recently shuttered attempt, although not until overbillion had been spent and the most recent attempt to establish a cohort in Britain.
However, the central focus remains the British series, which is of course still the most comprehensive,

While this book spends a lot of time scrutinizing the history of the cohorts, and the associated scientific leadership and political involvement, one area where I found it light was a detailed discussion of the modern ethics.
There is definitely time spent explaining how, while you could just walk up to someone's house in thes and ask them for detailed information about their child and personal habits, informed consent became key after the Nuremberg trials if that's inaccurate, it's my fault.
Obviously, this isn't a bad thing, and I think it'd be worth looking more in depth at the rationale behind tissue collection, especially given that some of those samples sat unused for a long time.
The thing is, you don't know what future technology will be capable of doing, so it's great to collect more than is strictly useful at the timebut in the postSnowden age, is it safe Researchers have raised concerns with how easily an individual in a study can be identified with only a few pieces of information.
Considering how much information is involved here, that can lead to some really personal stuff being aired,

So anyway, it's worth reading this book to understand both the changing nature of science and some of the most amazingly dedicated researchers, whose contributions to a number of fields have been massive, but be aware that the narrow focus and depth can make it a bit long at times.
Very informative. Gives a view of development of post war Britain and is social sciences While this leans more to the scientific than the social sciences for my taste, the overall fascination of following life cohorts is gripping.
So much has been learned, and remains to be learned, Well worth the read even the bits about data curation! This is a book about longterm studies of people born into predefined parameters and followed through their lives, and touches on how those studies have helped and informed the medical professions as well testing social science theories.
That all sounds a little dry, but fortunately this book is anything and although Im not entirely sure who the target audience is, I found it fascinating.


The book starts by looking at maternity care, for the children born in Aprilthe at that time one off study concentrated on where the children were born, whether they survived the first month of life, how long their mothers were confined for and how much they cost.
This was in before the creation of the NHS and these children were born at the start of the baby boon but the study had initially been planned by members of the eugenics society to discover why fewer babies were born to the middle classes which caused anxiety about the future of the country.
Having dispatched midwives and health visitors to fill in questionnaires about the lives of the,plus children born in the week the scientists were then able to start writing their reports.


The book talks about the design of followup studies for this group of children and what they were trying to discover which leads to the makeup of the questions but also brings in later studies, one in, another in.
Another study should have begun inbut Margaret Thatcher wasnt a big fan of social science and by this time the studies were costing a considerable amount of money so this never took place but a study in Bristol begun inwhere DNA was collected from blood and placentas and is still stored to this day.
The last study began inand with those children having reached their teens the next is into the final stages of planning,

I actually knew about thestudy through a throwaway comment from my mother who knew one of the participants when he was still a young boy, but I didnt realise how big it was or how far these studies have actually gone towards defining policy.
With studies on Grammar versus Comprehensive Schools, obesity, smoking and where it is best to give birth there is very little that hasnt been plundered to make a case or in some instances to disprove a case.


Helen Pearson is obviously a big supporter of these studies and as the UK is the only country to have so many lives monitored and for so far back, for the better good, Im with her although the costs are immense of course as the way we live has changed at such a fast rate continual studies are needed to reflect this.
Although a supporter the author is good at balancing the good done with the misrepresentation of some of the facts and pointing out where the facts themselves could be found wanting one example of this is a study from the first two birth cohorts which states that children with interested parents do far better than those without at school, and life in general.
However as it was teachers who were judging the interest levels of parents in a time when these very parents rarely set foot in a school it may well be that the teachers stated that the parents were interested in the education of their offspring more often if the child was doing well at school.

There are so many interesting facts and a few small insights into the lives of a couple of the earlier candidates that I think there is something to interest many people.
I even enjoyed some of the walk through the politics of funding the next phase and next study although the tales of how exhausted those in charge were became a little wearisome at times.


Im very grateful to Amazon Vine for giving me a copy of this book which gave me a lot to think about on so many different levels.
Despite being a book with an academic subject the author has made it incredibly accessible to those with no knowledge of the subject at all, The Life Project will be published onMarch, .