biology

National Child Development Study

National Child Development Study is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Child Development Study rather than just read about it. In short: The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which follows the lives of 17,415 people born in England, Scotland and Wales from 17,205 women during the week of 3–9 March 1958. The results from this study helped reduce infant mortality and were instrumental in improving maternity services in the UK.

Key takeaways

National Child Development Study belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Child Development Study to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Child Development Study from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which follows the lives of 17,415 people born in England, Scotland and Wales from 17,205 women during the week of 3–9 March 1958. The results from this study helped reduce infant mortality and were instrumental in improving maternity services in the UK.

History The origins of the NCDS can be found in the Perinatal Mortality Survey (PMS) which was then sponsored by the National Birthday Trust Fund and set up to collect information about the social and obstetric factors associated with stillbirth and death in early infancy. The NCDS was first led by the paediatrician Neville Butler assisted by the National Birthday Trust Fund. The survey was initially planned as a one-off study to investigate the reasons for the relatively high rate of stillbirths (38.5 stillbirths per 1,000 births) in the UK compared to other developed countries. 98% of women (17,205) who gave birth in England, Scotland and Wales to 17,415 babies during the week of 3–9 March 1958 completed the survey. Records of birth deaths to 7,618 women and about 5,000 autopsy reports were also collected over the period of March–May 1958. In 1963 the Plowden Committee which was investigating the education of primary children in the UK and the transition to secondary school, commissioned a follow-up report on the children from the NCDS. This follow-up survey was led by Mia Kellmer Pringle and attempts were made to trace all members of this birth generational cohort. The survey took place in 1965 and results were included in the Plowden report Children and their Primary Schools in 1967. By 2016 the NCDS has been conducted in nine different sweeps to get information concerning the physical, educational and social development of the people from the initial survey: in 1965, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1991, 1999–2000, 2004, 2008 and 2014. The following sweep was planned for 2018. Examples of topics which have been included are medical care, health, home environment, educational progress, parental involvement, family relationships, economic activity, income, training and housing. During the period 2002–2004, genetic information on participants was also obtained to examine the genetic effects on common traits and diseases. Following the initial birth survey, the four subsequent sweeps were carried out by the National Children's Bureau. In 1985, the NCDS was moved to the Social Statistics Research Unit (SSRU), which in 2016 was known as the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS).

Methodology and scope In the 2013–2014 sweep data collection involved a sequential mixed mode approach whereby cohort members were invited to complete a web survey and those not responding were invited to participate via telephone. More than 9,100 cohort members took part in total, with 60% doing so on-line.

Survey results As of 2016, the results of the NCDS have been used in over 2,500 publications, some of which can be found here. The report Now we are 50 with the key findings of the NCDS was published by the CLS on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the NCDS in 2008.

Re-using the data The data and additional study information are available on the United Kingdom Data Service (UKDS) website. Users are required to register in order to access the download section.

References

Bibliography

External links CLS website Archived 8 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine UKDS website Summary statistics of genetic information from the 2002-2004 followup (mostly Single-nucleotide polymorphisms).

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Child Development Study

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Child Development Study claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Child Development Study before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Child Development Study ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Child Development Study

In research: National Child Development Study appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Child Development Study in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Child Development Study is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 establishments in the United Kingdom, British medical research, Child development, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Child Development Study outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Child Development Study in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Child Development Study means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Child Development Study out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Child Development Study in simple terms?

Why does National Child Development Study matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Child Development Study?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Child Development Study.