National Survey of Health & Development

A Medical Research Council (MRC) longitudinal survey of people born in Britain in a week in May 1946. Originally designed to explore the impact of a National Health Service on health and to explore differences in child development by factors like social class, health and education, it has continued and has itself developed into a study of ageing. The regularly-updated information about this cohort also contrasts with data from other longitudinal studies in Britain and elsewhere. Formerly based at the London School of Economics (under the direction of Dr. James Douglas and at the University of Bristol), the survey is a MRC unit that operates under the auspices of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London where it is directed by Professor Michael Wadsworth.