Cambridge ESRC DTP Interdisciplinary Studentship 2021: Early-life and intergenerational effects on later-life outcomes over the long-term

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My proposedresearch will explore two main themes, using the two data sources mentioned in the project description. Firstly, I hope touse the detailed Derbyshire Health Visitor records to study the short- and long-term impact of the 1918/1919 influenzaepidemic on infants during gestation and the first year of life. I want to identify the general impact of influenza on bothpregnant mothers and the infants themselves, and how the timing of the influenza-onset may have impacted its effect. Ihope this study can add to the 'positive selection' debate regarding shocks in utero. I will also use the dataset to look atthe relationship between infant mortality and the foetal origins thesis. Secondly, I will use the Cambridge Group FamilyReconstitution dataset to study infant mortality clustering in England, and intergenerational fertility and mortality rates.Through these ideas, I hope to expand our understanding of the mechanisms through which infant mortality ispropagated individually and across populations, and how in utero environments are impacted by exogenous factors. I amparticularly interested in how the causes behind health inequality and infant mortality manifest themselves biologicallyover time, and how to break these cycles.