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Cohort Profile: The Newcastle Thousand Families 1947 Birth Cohort

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Mark PearceORCiD, Professor Nigel Unwin, Professor Louise Parker, Emeritus Professor Alan Craft

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Abstract

The initial thoughts leading to the development of the Thousand Families Study arose through observations made by Sir James Spence, one of the first full-time paediatricians in the United Kingdom and from 1942, the first holder of a University Chair of Child Health in England. Prior to the Second World War, the city council in Newcastle upon Tyne, the city in Northern England in which Spence was based, became increasingly concerned about the high-infant mortality rate in the city (in 1939 the rate was 62 per 1000 live births). At that time the city council had a responsibility for the health of its citizens. They asked Spence to undertake a review of all deaths of children under the age of 5 years. He concluded that the excess infant mortality was due to death from acute infection.¹ Further research was curtailed by the Second World War.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Pearce MS, Unwin NC, Parker L, Craft AW

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Journal of Epidemiology

Year: 2009

Volume: 38

Issue: 4

Pages: 932-937

Date deposited: 07/05/2010

ISSN (print): 0300-5771

ISSN (electronic): 1464-3685

Publisher: Oxford University Press

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyn184

DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyn184

PubMed id: 18782900

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