Children growing up in Liverpool (C-GULL) birth cohort and CityLab linked data

Liverpool is a disadvantaged city with high levels of illness including obesity, cancer, heart disease and mental illness, which are more common in poor populations and in those who are born early and/or smaller than other babies. Birth cohorts are large studies of babies born around the same time and followed up for many years. They can help us understand the connection between poverty, pregnancy and childhood, and the development of illness. 

We will establish a birth cohort of 10,000 children and their families in Liverpool. This will be part of a larger study of more than 300,000 children whose data will be securely and confidentially obtained from hospitals, GPs, schools and other sources and then anonymised before being analysed to better understand the link between early life experiences and later ill health. 

Our work will have a global impact as these health problems are seen throughout the world.