The Study Members

The participants in the Dunedin Study, known as Study members, are a one-year cohort of the children studied at birth by Dr Buckfield who were then invited by Dr. Phil Silva to enrol in a longitudinal study when they were aged 3 years. All those born at Queen Mary Hospital between 1 April 1972 and 31 March 1973, and whose mothers lived within the Dunedin Metropolitan Health District boundaries at the time of their child's birth and were still living in the Otago region at the time of the age 3 assessment, were eligible for inclusion. Of the 1139 eligible children, 1037 (i.e. 91% of those eligible) were assessed within a month of their third birthday. The 9% who declined participation did not differ from those enrolling in the longitudinal study in terms of perinatal characteristics or family socio-economic status. These 1037 children are the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study members. Perinatal, demographic and anthropometric information was collected at birth for the Study members. Of the 1037 babies, 535 were boys, 502 were girls; 1013 singletons and 24 twins. 

Of course, Study members are no longer children and are now in their 40s. The map below shows the dispersion of Study members around the world at age 45 assessment (2017-2019).