Our projects will explore the long term effects of policy and environmental exposures, especially during the in-utero period. A first aim is to examine the long term effects of the introduction of the National Health System around 1948 on the composition of children born in the UK. A second aim will consider pollution exposure on health outcomes by using the geographic information (location of birth) in the data. In each case, we will explore whether we can detect traces of these environmental shocks in the composition of respondents in the data, using summary measures of genetics, called polygenic scores. We will also pursue novel analyses of intergenerational associations in health and socioeconomic status that separate genetic from non-genetic transmission.
The scientific rationale and public health impact for our first aim is to leverage the birth place/time information available in the data to consider potential sources of variation in older-age health and social outcomes, which could increase our understanding of key determinants of variation in these outcomes across individuals living in the UK. The rationale for our second aim is to understand mechanisms for similarity of health and socioeconomic outcomes between parents and children in the UK, which will help understanding how interrupt these processes and increase mobility.
The project duration is 3years.
