Thirty-year follow-up of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): the challenges and triumphs of conducting in-person research at a distance

Maria E Bleil; Glenn I Roisman; Steven E Gregorich; Bradley M Appelhans; Robert A Hiatt; Robert C Pianta; Anna L Marsland; George M Slavich; Alexis S Thomas; Winnie S Yeung; Cathryn Booth-LaForce

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066655

Thirty-year follow-up of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): the challenges and triumphs of conducting in-person research at a distance

BMJ Open. 2023 Mar 20;13(3):e066655. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066655.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Child, Family, & Population Health Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA mbleil@uw.edu.
² Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁶ School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁹ Department of Child, Family, & Population Health Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the current study, The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Health in Early and Adult Life (SHINE), was to build on the landmark Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), a longitudinal birth cohort initiated in 1991, by conducting a health-focused follow-up of the now adult participants. This effort has produced an invaluable resource for the pursuit of life course research examining links between early life risk and resilience factors and adulthood health and disease risk.

Participants: Of the 927 NICHD SECCYD participants available for recruitment in the current study, 705 (76.1%) participated in the study. Participants were between 26 and 31 years and living in diverse geographic locations throughout the USA.

Findings to date: In descriptive analyses, the sample exhibited risk on health status indicators, especially related to obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Of particular concern, the prevalence of hypertension (29.4%) and diabetes (25.8%) exceeded national estimates in similar-age individuals. Health behaviour indicators generally tracked with the parameters of poor health status, showing a pattern of poor diet, low activity and disrupted sleep. The juxtaposition of the sample's relatively young age (mean=28.6 years) and high educational status (55.6% college educated or greater) with its poor health status is noteworthy, suggesting a dissociation between health and factors that are typically health protective. This is consistent with observed population health trends, which show a worsening of cardiometabolic health status in younger generations of Americans.

Future plans: The current study, SHINE, lays the groundwork for future analyses in which the uniquely robust measures collected as a part of the original NICHD SECCYD will be leveraged to pinpoint specific early life risk and resilience factors as well as the correlates and potential mechanisms accounting for variability in health and disease risk indicators in young adulthood.

Keywords: CARDIOLOGY; EPIDEMIOLOGY; MENTAL HEALTH; PREVENTIVE MEDICINE; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL MEDICINE.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child Care
Child Development
Diabetes Mellitus*
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.)*
United States / epidemiology
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding