24 Jun 22. Lothian Birth Cohort anniversaries

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The Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936 are follow-up studies of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947.

The surveys had, respectively, tested the intelligence of almost every child born in 1921 or 1936 and attending school in Scotland in the month of June in those years.

June 1^st marked 90 years since the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey, which forms the foundation of the follow-up study, the Lothian Birth Cohorts 1921 (LBC1921).

The 1932 Scottish Mental Survey recorded scores from over 80,000 children in Scotland aged 11, to form a baseline measure to investigate how childhood intelligence relates to cognitive ability, mental, physical and brain health in older age.

Some of the LBC1921 participants have brain imaging data at age ~92 years, which is very rare, especially with their cognitive data at age 11.

June 4^th marked 75 years since the 1947 Scottish Mental Survey, which forms the foundation of the follow-up study, the Lothian Birth Cohorts 1936 (LBC1936).

The 1947 Scottish Mental Survey recorded almost all children born in 1936 and attending schools in Scotland who sat Godfrey Thomson’s Moray House Test of general intelligence (over 70,000 children took part), just as their older peers did at the same age in 1932.

The LBC 1936 study is ongoing and the team are successfully powering through their Wave 6 goals:

• Over 200 participants have now attended the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility for their cognitive appointment
• Over 100 participants have returned to the Edinburgh Imaging Facility RIE for their MR brain scan

These results mean the team are now more than half way to their predicted total by the end of Wave 6.

Well done to all the LBC1936 participants, the LBC testers and Edinburgh Imaging radiographers for achieving these great results so far.