Biomedical follow-up of 1958 Birth Cohort Study members at age 60

上个世纪人类预期寿命的延长是公共卫生领域最伟大的成就之一。然而，它也在卫生和社会护理方面提出了新的挑战，特别是与老年相关的健康不良负担增加，包括认知障碍和虚弱。了解这些老龄化结果的发生及其决定因素已成为一项具有重大政策影响的全球研究优先事项。在英国和其他国家的中老年人口中已经建立了几项有影响力的研究，有能力为这些问题提供亟需的见解。然而，最近变得明显的是，构成衰老状态的过程在生命过程中开始的时间比最初想象的要早得多，在某些情况下，甚至早在出生或先入为主的时候就开始了。正是在这类涵盖寿命的研究中，英国才出类拔萃。1958年在英国进行的出生队列研究是此类研究中规模最大的一项。它的研究成员正接近60岁，这是老龄化问题通常开始出现的时候。因此，我们将进行一项详细的调查，收集健康老龄化的关键领域，包括健康的多个维度(例如，心脏代谢、认知和身体健康)，以及在队列的一生中收集的遗传和环境因素。独一无二的是，这些新信息将使我们能够回答一系列对公共卫生具有重要意义的重要研究问题。这些问题包括：感染在心血管疾病早期生活中的作用，解释为什么个人的心血管疾病和糖尿病仍未得到诊断或没有得到充分治疗，老年早期心血管疾病风险可以在多大程度上被中年开始的体力活动逆转，童年的身体机能和协调能力如何与60岁时的身体机能指标相关，以及终身就业的持续时间和质量是否保护认知能力下降。我们还将能够进行一系列跨队列比较，以使我们能够突出这种疾病和老龄化过程在几代人中发生变化的地方。这些数据将在收集后不久向科学家公开，因此为科学界调查一系列与政策相关的问题提供了无与伦比的资源。这种理解的提高最终将导致个人行为的改变，以及公共政策和专业实践的改进，这将带来更好的公共健康和更健康的长寿。总而言之，什么因素影响健康以及我们衰老的速度最初被认为是我们成年后所做的事情的结果，比如我们吸烟、喝酒、锻炼的数量、我们的体重以及我们的基因。研究现在开始表明，童年时期的因素也可能对以后的疾病和衰老产生影响。来自医学研究理事会的财政援助将使我们能够跟踪英国20世纪50年代出生的人到60岁时的健康状况，展示终身因素如何影响我们的年龄，并建议改善老年人口健康的政策。

The increase in human life expectancy over the last century has been one of the greatest achievements in public health. However, it also poses new challenges in health and social care, in particular the increased burden of ill health associated with older age, including cognitive impairment and frailty. Understanding the occurrence of these ageing outcomes and their determinants has become a global research priority with considerable policy implications. Several influential studies have been established in middle- and older-aged populations in the UK and in other countries with the capacity to offer much-needed insights into these issues. It has recently become evident, however, that the processes that underlie ageing states begin much sooner in the life course than originally thought, in some cases as early as birth or preconception. It is in such studies that cover the lifespan that the UK excels. The 1958 Birth Cohort Study in the UK is the largest long-running study of this type. Its study members are approaching 60 years of age, when problems of ageing typically begin to emerge. We will therefore carry out a detailed survey which captures key domains of healthy ageing incorporating multiple dimensions of health (for example, cardiometabolic, cognitive, and physical health) combined with genetic and environmental factors that have been collected across the lifetime of the cohort. Uniquely, this new information will allow us to answer a series of important research questions of public health importance. These include the role of infection in early life in CVD, explaining why individuals remain undiagnosed or inadequately treated for CVD and diabetes, the extent to which CVD risk in early older age can be reversed by physical activity initiated in midlife, how physical function and co-ordination in childhood are related to physical function measures at age 60, and whether the duration and quality of employment over the lifetime is protective of cognitive decline. We will also be able to run a series cross-cohort comparisons, to allow us to highlight where such disease and ageing processes are changing across generations. These data will become publically available to scientists soon after collection, so providing an unparalleled resource for the scientific community to investigate a range of policy-relevant issues. This improved understanding will ultimately lead to changes in individual behaviour and improvements in public policy and professional practice that will lead to better public health and healthier longer lives.In summary, what affects health and how fast we age was originally thought to be a result of what we did as adults, such as how much we smoked, drank, exercised, and our weight, as well as our genes. Research is now beginning to show that factors in our childhood may also have an impact on later illness and ageing. Financial help from the Medical Research Council will allow us to track the health of people who were born in the 1950s in the UK as they reach 60 years of age, to show how lifelong factors affect how we age, and to recommend policies that will improve the health of the older population.