What I found in the "The Life Project" that followed 70 years to see if life leads to happiness, health and success

BySaulo Victor *

In March 1946, a UK research institute recorded about the births of thousands of children born in a week, then decided to pursue their growth. As the result of this research was very meaningful, researchers carried out follow-up surveys and repeated similar investigations in 1958, 1970, and early 1990, and now the survey target is 5 generations · It expanded to 70,000 people · 70 years, enormous data is recorded. Many of the research contents are confidential, but since five years ago, journalists participating in the researchHelen PearsonMr. published his part in The Guardian, what makes human happiness and success, and how spending inequality is born.

The Life Project: what makes some people happy, healthy and successful - and others not? | Books | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/27/the-life-project-what-makes-some-people-happy-healthy-successful-and-others-not

A study called "The Life Project" that conducted follow-up surveys of everything in human life, from interview surveys and interview surveys to umbilical coral collections. Based on The Life Project, 6000 articles and books have been published so far, deepening the understanding of the people about fetal growth / chronic diseases and aging, as well as various policies such as pregnancy, childbirth and education I gave it. On the other hand, The Life Project has also made clear the unpleasant facts such as how much inequality and obesity are infested in modern society.

The beginning of the research was March 1946, and researchers were dispatched to the mother who gave birth to a child in a week. And from the point that "Is child being given enough milk?", "Who is taking care of husband while looking after the child?" Or "Child's sheets and children's clothes How much is the price of clothes such as coats and underwear that you wear? "Anyway, detailed questions were asked about everything.

As a result, children born from the lowest mothers were found to have a 70% higher mortality rate than children born of higher class mothers. The government shocked by this result has little or no self-payment of medical expenses in 1948National Health Service(NHS) will start, freeing up matters concerning pregnancy and childbirth to all. Besides, the research results of The Life Project have also led to childbirth and childcare leave and enhancement of services received by families.

ByKevin Conor Keller

Next was The Education that the Life Project influenced. Since 1944, the secondary education in the UK ranked students' head goodness based on examination results, and divided them into three schools "grammar school", "secondary technical school" and "secondary modern school" and educated them. Because the results of the examination are emphasized, it was nominally possible for excellent children to go to excellent schools without being influenced by their origin and class.

However, in fact, it is pointed out that research shows that students with a working class are worse in test results than middle-class and upper-class children, creating a "wasteful use of smart children" It will look like. And in 1965, the Labor Party will unveil the school by rank of grades, will expand the expansion of the general secondary school. Even now, "whether secondary education should be divided by grades or whether comprehensive education is better" is a matter of argument but it is certain that The Life Project influenced the educational system in the UK.

Also, it is amazing to think from now, but in the 1970s, 40% of pregnant women smoked. At that time, the impact of smoking on the unborn baby was not thought much. In a survey conducted in 1970, The Life Project added a question of "Whether smoking or not" to a question for a mother of a newborn baby. Then, even considering the difference of the class of the mother, it became clear that there is a difference in the weight and the mortality rate of the child born in the smoker and the non-smoker. Although discussions took place when the findings were reported in 1972, finally scientists and doctors agreed with the opinion that smoking has an effect on the fetus, and the contents of advice given by the public institution to pregnant women A change will be brought about. From now on, the view that smoking during pregnancy is dangerous has been solid until now.

ByJurek d.

In addition, as a result of the birth of a newborn baby being observed many times over decades, change in generation can be compared. The physical characteristics of the subjects observed as the times passed are "weight gain". In the postwar era, food was a distribution system, so many of the subjects were healthy, and there were not many people who were overweight. However, in the 1980s, the obesity rate rapidly increases around the time when subjects in the early stages enter the 40s. In addition, when comparing the first three subjects of the survey conducted in the 1980 's, signs of overweight were seen despite being born separately. Researchers consider the cause of "obesity explosion" visited by any subject regardless of age, as a change in lifestyle. In the 1980s, in the UK, salaries increased for the general public, eating out increased, as opportunities to walk with the spread of automobiles decreased.

The increase trend observed at this time continues to the present, and now the proportion of children diagnosed as "overweight" before 3 years old has risen to 23%. However, as obesity and overweight relate not only to lifestyle but also to genes, research to solve obesity will continue in the future.

In the 1990s, when asking adult subjects "How many plumber's telephone numbers are on the phone book?" "When you buy 68 pence of bread and 45 pence of soup, if you order 2 pounds How much is your fishing? "" Question about the area of ​​a room with 12 feet in length and 14 feet in width? "Will be added. This revealed lack of literacy and computing power of adults. According to research published based on The Life Project, in adults in the UK who were supposed to have less reading and writing skills than the ability of 11-year-old children in the 1990's, did. Regarding the calculation, one in three people was lower than the ability of the child of 11 years old, and the rate of the ability was lower than that of the 7 to 9 year old child was 1 in 4 people.

ByAbhi Sharma

The British government who saw this fact heavily started an educational system for adults in the early 2000s. In reading and writing and computing, we started a course that learned free abilities to receive a British national unified test system (GCSE). Throughout the course, people seem to have been able to increase motivation and acquire self-esteem.

In addition, The Life Project also reveals the existence of inequality lying in society. The study also examined the relationship between the income of parents and the income of children, but children born in 1970 were more aware of the income earned when they became adults and parents' income than children born in 1958 The connection between them was strong. In other words, as the times have progressed, it turned out that children became hard to escape from their own background.

Of course, there is social inequality in every generation. In any generation of subjects there was a tendency that if the environment in which they were born were disabled, school performance was bad, job hunting failed, health problems were encountered. The only salvation is that not everyone can escape from the background, even children who were badly born, there were people who succeed as adults.

What is particularly important is how parents are interested in children in the first few years of their birth, so even children who were born in an unfavorable environment do their best for their children and the child's lifetime I also know that it will change. In the study conducted in 2006, even in children who were born in an unfavorable environment, parents read books when their children are 5 years old, and in families who are thinking about education at the age of 10, children are 30 The possibility of being poverty was remarkably low when becoming old.

ByEyeliam

The first generation subjects who participated in The Life Project are about to enter the 70's now. Of course, their health status is also checked, and 85% of the first generation are symptoms of heart disease, hypertension, cholesterol elevation, symptoms such as diabetes, obesity, psychological problems, cancer, respiratory disease We know that at least one of them suffers from it. This is the same even for those who talk about "questions are healthy" for questions, on average they have 2 diseases per person. Also, in another study, people who could not hold things firmly in physical ability tests that went to their 50s, struggled to stand up from chairs, those who could not stand on one's eyes closed, It is also known that the proportion of deaths in the later 13 years is higher than that in the last 13 years.

From the influence of environmental pollution to research on genes related to divorce rates and diseases, the Life Project, which has made various facts clear until now, is not scheduled to end at the time of writing, and the appearance of British people It is regarded as functioning as a mirror of mirrors.