50-year class reunion

Health project calls on pupils to update test started in 60s

THEY were young children when they first offered their services as guinea pigs in ground-breaking health project.

Now they are in their 60s – and the project still is not finished.

On Saturday some 300 members of the ‘Aberdeen Children of the 1950s’ project will get together for the latest stage of a somewhat drawn-out study. It started so long ago that some of the participants have no recollection of getting involved.

But, for many, the Aberdeen University study offers the chance for sixtysomethings to keep up with old school pals.

Thousands of youngsters at primary schools in the city took part in the early 1960s study, sitting learning ability tests that researchers used to identify factors causing learning difficulties.

Some of the findings, including the

‘Helps answer many questions’

impact of premature birth, is still used today. Now many of those tested more than half a century ago are reuniting to see if their life stories can bring further understanding of current medical issues.

Dr Jessica Butler, a chronic disease researcher at the university, said the group could help scientists get a better picture of what impacts on life success, health and general wellbeing.

She said: ‘ Several things make the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study special and valuable. It’s unusual because it includes not a sample of people, but almost every child in the city. It measures not just health, but combines health data with education, social, and demographic information.

‘This means the study can be used to answer many types of questions like: what are the important influences in childhood that are linked to adult health? For those that had a difficult start in life, what helped them succeed later on? What things in family, school and community life influence our wellbeing?’

Dr Butler added: ‘ We are interested in what helps people bounce back during difficult times like a serious illness, a job loss, or loss of a loved one. The new project will involve linking the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s to information like industry records, census data, and social welfare records.’

Around 300 participants will gather at the university’s Old Aberdeen campus on Saturday to hear about the project’s next stage.

In 2000, around two-thirds of the original group completed a questionnaire about their lives and their recent health records were linked into the study.

The research from the 1960s and 2000s has since been used in more than 40 studies by experts in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the UK and Sweden.

Bill Harkes, 62, was a pupil at Westerton Primary School in Northfield, Aberdeen, when he completed the tests in 1962 and has been employed in the city ever since, mainly in social work.

He said: ‘As children, we obviously had no i dea of the scale and eventual relevance the studies would have. It’s only in recent years I’ve realised the scale of the project, and I realised I was really quite privileged to be involved with it.

‘It will be interesting to see if I recognise any old faces that I went to primary school with.’