Associated organisationsBradford Hospitals NHS Trust · Bradford Institute for Health Research · University of Bristol · University of Leeds · University of Liverpool · University of YorkEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£7.4M
PeriodJan 2022 — Dec 2028
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Thirty thousand teenagers and young adults in Bradford will have their health tracked through adolescence and into early adulthood in the largest study of its kind in the UK. Adolescence is a critical window for mental health, heart disease risk, and social inequalities, yet it remains poorly understood. Most large health studies focus on younger children or older adults, leaving a gap in knowledge about what shapes health during the teenage years and transition to adulthood. This project fills that gap by following a diverse, multi-ethnic urban population—many from deprived backgrounds—through this period. If successful, the research will produce a detailed picture of how factors like mental health, reproductive health, neurocognitive development, and cardiometabolic risk interact and evolve. The findings could directly inform policies and interventions in schools, healthcare, and local government—for example, better timing of mental health support or more effective programmes to reduce obesity and heart disease risk. Because the study is linked to routine NHS and council data covering 600,000 citizens, results can be rapidly translated into practice. The project also includes international collaboration, so insights from Bradford could benefit young people elsewhere.
View original technical description
Adolescence and transition into adulthood are periods shaping life-long mental health, cardiometabolic risk, and inequalities. However, they are poorly studied and understood. By extending and expanding the Born in Bradford (BiB) cohort study through this period using innovative, co-produced approaches to collect and analyse data, we aim to understand better the interplay of factors that influence health and wellbeing, and inform/evaluate interventions to improve them and reduce inequalities. Age of Wonder will be the only large whole city cohort capable of capturing the contemporary lived experience amongst multi-ethnic adolescents progressing into young adulthood, linked to their earlier life. It will build on a world-leading birth cohort situated the 5th largest metropolitan district in England with high levels of deprivation, ethnic diversity, supported by a connected routine data infrastructure covering 600,000 citizens. We will collect repeated data from existing BiB participants and their peers (N~30,000). In-school assessments, clinical assessments plus online data collection and electronic linkage will capture information on mental, reproductive, sexual, neurocognitive and cardiometabolic health. Remote collection will continue to age 21. Repeat qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations will explore lived experiences. We will collaborate internationally to broad-ranging research and discovery science and promote rapid application to policy/practice.
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