NZ Herald: Portraits of a thousand lives

The Dunedin Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which began in 1972, has since then tracked the lives of over 1,000 people since they were born, gathering information about various aspects of their health.

Although there are other such studies with more people, the Dunedin longitudinal study has gained a reputation for its rigorousness and the high-quality information it continually provides researchers both here and overseas.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“Not only does the Dunedin study have world-class data in areas such as mental, oral, respiratory and sexual health, but it can marry themes together and ask questions others cannot – looking, for example, at a possible link between gum disease and cardiovascular health or how poor mental health might “get under the skin” to cause physical problems.

“The Dunedin study is also one of the lengthiest, says Moffitt, an American who is in the city during assessments and spends the rest of her time at Duke University in North Carolina and King’s College in London.”