A Life Course Approach to Healthy Ageing

Diana Kuh, Director, MRC National Survey of Health and Development and MRC Unit of Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, UK,Rachel Cooper, Programme Leader Track, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, UK,Rebecca Hardy, Programme Leader, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, UK,Marcus Richards, Programme Leader, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, UK,Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, UK

Diana Kuh, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology at University College London, is the director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, and the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, the oldest of the British birth cohort studies that has followed up over 5000 individuals since their birth in March 1946. Diana is also the principal investigator of the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) network and co-Director of an NIH programme on the Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Ageing (IALSA) that brings together cohort studies to investigate lifetime influences on ageing.


Rachel Cooper is a Programme Leader Track at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London. Rachel has a BA in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Epidemiology from University College London. Rachel has experience of using data from a range of longitudinal studies to address research questions which have a life course perspective and has worked on the MRC National Survey of Health and Development since 2003. Since 2007 Rachel's primary focus has been on the unit's physical capability and musculoskeletal ageing programme and she has been heavily involved in the study of these measures across cohorts as part of the New Dynamics of Ageing Collaborative Research Programme - Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon). Rachel is interested in all aspects of life course epidemiology and in applying this approach to the study of healthy ageing.

Rebecca Hardy is Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics and is a Programme Leader in the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing. She leads a research programme investigating the biological and social life course influences on cardiovascular ageing and the development of cardiovascular disease using data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development and other cohort studies. She also has an interest in the methodology for the analysis of life course data and for cross-cohort comparisons.

Professor Marcus Richards is a Programme Leader at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, and a Professor of Psychology in Epidemiology at the Faculty of Population Health Sciences, University College London. Marcus read Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, and obtained a PhD at London University in the physiology of human learning. He has held appointments at Columbia University in New York and King's College London Institute of Psychiatry to conduct research into neurodegenerative diseases of ageing, and was one of the first recipients of an Alzheimer's Society Research Fellowship. He joined the MRC National Survey of Health and Development team in 1996, where his work is primarily focused on developing a life course approach to mental ageing and its integration with physical health and function.


Professor Ben-Shlomo is a clinical epidemiologist and has been at the forefront of a life course approach to epidemiology both a theoretical and empirical level. He is involved with several cohort studies and has interests in ageing, neurodegenerative disorders, endocrine influences on health and equity of access to health care.

Contributors

Judith E Adams
Consultant and Honorary Professor of Diagnostic Radiology, Clinical Radiology and Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Avan Aihie Sayer
MRC Clinical Scientist and Professor of Geriatric Medicine, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Tamuno Alfred
ESRC-funded PhD student, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Yoav Ben-Shlomo
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, School of Social & Community Medicine, University of Bristol, UK

JD Carpentieri
Senior Policy and Research Officer, Institute of Education, London, UK

Sean AP Clouston
Assistant Professor, Public Health Program and the Department of Preventative Medicine
Stony Brook University, New York, USA

Cyrus Cooper
Director and Professor of Rheumatology, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, and Vice Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK, and Professor of Musculoskeletal Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Rachel Cooper
MRC Programme Leader Track and Senior Lecturer, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, London, UK

Teri-Louise Davies
MRC-funded PhD student in the Bristol Centre for Systems Biomedicine (BCSBmed) doctoral training centre, Bristol Genetic Epidemiology Laboratories, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Ian NM Day
Professor of Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology, Bristol Genetic Epidemiology Laboratories, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Ian J Deary
Professor of Differential Psychology and Director of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Ulf Ekelund
Professor, Department of Sport Medicine, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway and MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Jane Elliott
Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, and the Director of the collaborative CLOSER (Cohorts and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources) programme, Institute of Education, London, UK

Anne Ferguson Smith
Professor of Genetics and Head of Department, Department of Geneticss University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Catharine R Gale
Reader, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, and MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Michael Gardner
Research Associate in Epidemiology, School of Social & Community Medicine, University of Bristol, UK

James Goodwin
Visiting Professor in Physiology of Ageing, Loughborough University and Head of Research, Age UK

Paul Haggarty
Professor and Head of Lifelong Health, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health
University of Aberdeen, UK

Rebecca Hardy
MRC Programme Leader and Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, London, UK

Scott Hofer
Professor, Harald Mohr, M.D. and Wilhelma Mohr, M.D. Research Chair in Adult
Development and Aging, Department of Psychology and Center on Aging, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Principal Investigator, IALSA network.

Diana Kuh
MRC Unit Director and Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, London, UK. Principal Investigator, HALCyon network.

Debbie A Lawlor
Professor of Epidemiology, MRC University of Bristol Unit for Integrated Epidemiology, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Stafford Lightman
Professor of Medicine, Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology, University of Bristol, UK

Carmen Martin-Ruiz
Senior Research Associate, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University

Seema Mihrshahi
Lecturer, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia

Gita Mishra
Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Co-Director of Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Research, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia

Graciela Muniz-Terrera
MRC Senior Investigator Scientist, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCLondon, London, UK

Emily Murray
Research Fellow, Division of Population Health Sciences and Education, Population Health Research Centre, St George's University of London, London, UK

Ann Prentice
MRC Unit Director, MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK

Marcus Richards
MRC Programme Leader and Professor of Psychology in Epidemiology, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, London, UK

Mai Stafford
Programme Leader Track and Senior Lecturer, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, London, UK

Alison Stephen
Principal Investigator Scientist, MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK

Kate Tilling
Professor of Medical Statistics, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, UK

Thomas von Zglinicki
Professor of Cell Gerontology, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University

Kate A Ward
MRC Senior Investigator Scientist, MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK.

Andrew Wills
Lecturer in Applied Statistics, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.