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Article History

Received: 20 October 2024

Accepted: 13 March 2026

First Online: 26 March 2026

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval is obtained from a National Health Service Research Ethics Committee in advance of each sweep of data collection. The Age 38 Survey was approved by Southampton & Southwest Hampshire Research Ethics Committee (08/H0504/144), the Age 42 Survey by London-Central Research Ethics Committee (11/LO/1560) and the Age 46 Survey by South East Coast—Brighton & Sussex (15/LO/1446). In addition, London-Central Research Ethics Committee have provided ethics approval for the ongoing activities of the study in between sweeps of data collection: keeping in touch and tracing study members; cleaning, documenting and providing access to the data for research; and linking data from administrative sources to survey data to increase the utility of the data for research (14/LO/0371).

: In 1970, when the birth survey was carried out, consent to participate in surveys was gained by respondents agreeing to be interviewed or respondents returning the completed questionnaire to the study team. Involvement in subsequent surveys adopted the same approach. Individuals could withdraw from the study at any time by simply expressing the wish to do so. BCS70 sought informed parental consent for the 5-year (1975), 10-year (1980) and 16-year (1986) surveys. For surveys at 26-years (1996), 30-years (2000), 34-years (2004), 38-years (2008), 42-years (2012) and 46-years (2016) the approach was similar, this time directly for the study participants.

: The authors declare no competing interests.