The mental and physical wellbeing of 21-year-old Australians is to be analysed in an extraordinary longitudinal study that began when these young people were still in the womb.
More than two decades ago, researchers enrolled thousands of mothers when they attended their first obstetrical visit and have followed their offspring at birth, at age five, at age 14 and now again at age 21.
With growing mental health problems and obesity in young people, this sample of more than 7000 young Australians represents a unique opportunity for researchers to study the factors contributing to these problems.
Evidence suggests 10–20 percent of young people will have had a serious mental illness in the past year and more than10 percent of that age group will be obese. Both mental illness and obesity in earlier years are believed to relate to a range of other diseases in later years.
In what is the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in Australia, the Pathways to Mental Illness and Obesity in Young Adults study has secured a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant of almost $700,000 over three years to research these two health epidemics in young adults.
The University of Queensland’s Professor Jake Najman is leading this longitudinal study, which began life as The Mater–University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, with the aim of explaining the causes of child health and development problems in the child’s journey from the womb and then through life in to young adulthood.
The ongoing study will examine the child’s social context, in terms of the mother’s social and economic circumstances, early health and developmental history and maternal health and wellbeing as these predict the young adult’s mental health and physique.
It has so far achieved an extraordinary retention rate of up to 70 percent of participants —which is attributed to recognition by members that they are part of a very special study.
"This study is unique in Australia because it contains 21 years of information about those involved and how their lives and their parents’ lives have changed," Professor Najman said.
The researchers’ past experience has shown that the participants located agreed to continue with the study because they were familiar with it and recognised the value and their contribution.
And although those lost to follow-up were likely to have higher than average rates of socio-economic disadvantage and health problems, the researchers have engaged a range of modelling exercises to compensate for this.
The next phase of the longitudinal study will begin early next year and involve a bank of up to 20 research assistants visiting participants now spread around the country.
Visits will involve about two to three hours of data collection, including a questionnaire and a physical assessment of lung function, blood pressure, height and weight, and a clinical assessment of the 21-year-old’s emotional state.
This collaborative research project involves a range of people and disciplines including Professor Najman in social science and population health and other UQ colleagues including Dr William Bor, Psychiatry, Dr Michael O’Callaghan, Paediatrics and Child Health and Professor Gail Williams from Population Health—all of whom have worked together for many years on these issues.
Some of the hypotheses to be tested are that impaired mental health in childhood is the major predictor of mental illness in early adulthood; that poverty and economic disadvantage in early childhood lead to impaired mental health in young adults; and that mental health impairment in early childhood is associated with subsequent obesity in young adults.
For more information, contact Professor Jake Najman (telephone 07 3365 3344 at work, 07 3378 6365 at home or mobile 041 104 3490) or Peter McCutcheon at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 1088 or mobile 0413 380 012).
