Born in Bradford is one of the largest research studies in the World, tracking the lives of over 30,000 Bradfordians to find out what influences the health and wellbeing of families. We use our findings to develop new and practical ways to work with families and health professionals to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Our mission is simple: to conduct rigorous and applied health research that improves the health and wellbeing of families in Bradford and beyond. Our research falls into three key areas.
The Born in Bradford study is tracking the health and wellbeing of over 13,500 children, and their parents born at Bradford Royal Infirmary between March 2007 and December 2010. The health of these children is being tracked from pregnancy through childhood and into adult life. Studying children from before birth is a powerful way of understanding the many influences that shape our lives. We have been able to include how our parents and our wider family, our genes, the way we choose to live, the local environment, the services we access come together to affect our health and well-being. The information collected from our Born in Bradford families is being used to find the causes of common childhood illnesses, conditions and to explore the mental and social development of this new generation. We now starting to follow-up all the Born in Bradford families to see how their lives have changed since pregnancy. We are doing this through BiB: Growing Up and the Primary School Years projects.
As part of the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub we are host to the world’s first experimental from birth study: ‘Born in Bradford’s Better Start’. This part of our research started recruiting in 2016 and aims to recruit 5000 families living in selected areas of Bradford to see the impact of early life interventions on the health and wellbeing of mothers and children.
Using the findings from our studies we have developed a range of additional research projects which are evaluating and developing new interventions to improve health, for example focusing on reducing childhood obesity, increasing physical activity, improving oral health and improving mental wellbeing.
