Your age 46-48 data is now available to researchers

Researchers from across the globe are now able to learn more about health and cognitive function in middle age, thanks to the information you gave us at the last survey.
As you may remember, it was the first time we had carried out health assessments since you were children. We also continued to collect information about important aspects of your lives, such as family and housing, employment, income and mental health.

How your data helps society

Your data will open up opportunities for researchers to compare the midlife health and cognitive function of people across different generations.

Participants in cohort studies like yours, started in 1946 and 1958, took part in similar health surveys when they were in their mid-40s, and the 1958 generation also completed the same cognitive assessments as you when they were 50.

Professor Alice Sullivan, BCS70 director, said: “As your generation enters middle age you have provided invaluable information that will help to answer vital questions about health and physical functioning, enabling researchers, health practitioners and policymakers to learn more about healthy ageing.

“As the British population gets older, policymakers are particularly keen to learn more about the relationship between cognitive function and the risks of developing dementia and other disabilities in later life. Looking at the results of the memory tests you took, researchers can begin to investigate how cognitive function changes from midlife, and will be able to track the development of dementia as people age.”

What you were asked

More than 8,500 of you were visited by interviewers and trained nurses between July 2016 and July 2018. Nurses took a blood sample (which we then used to measure your cholesterol and blood sugar levels), tested your blood pressure, and asked you to undertake physical assessments of your grip strength and balance.

You completed a face-to-face interview, an online questionnaire, a series of memory tests to measure cognitive function, and also kept a two-day diary of what you ate.

This was also the first time we asked you questions about what medications you were taking, whether you smoked e-cigarettes, and if you were working on a zero-hours contract.

You were also asked to wear a physical activity monitor and complete a sleep diary for one week. These activity data require considerable processing and will be available to researchers in late 2019.

Find out more

Read about the 1970 British Cohort Study Age 46-48 Health Survey.

As new research is carried out using the age 46-48 data, we will share the findings in the news section of the website, and in the information we send you by post.