Born in Bradford [BiB]: an introduction to the worlds largest muti-ethnic birth cohort

Presenters: Professor Simon Gilbody DSc FMedSci University of York & Bradford Institute for Health Research

With key members of the BiB mental health research collaborative, including Dr Ruth Wadman PhD and Dr Lewis Paton PhD

What we will speak about

Bradford is one of the youngest cities in the UK and represents a captivating mix of economic, cultural and ethnic diversity.  Bradford is also the UK’s City of Culture 2025.  Like many places, it faces profound health and social challenges and is, perhaps, the ideal place to understand life course determinants of health and illness in the 21st Century. 

Born in Bradford began recruiting in 2008 and is the world’s largest multiethnic birth cohort.  In 2021 the team secured substantial investment from the Wellcome Trust to ensure the lives of young people are captured as they pass across adolescence and into adulthood.  Maternal and child health is mapped in the original 12,000 members of the BiB cohort and the team have now expanded their ambition to map the lives of 30,000 adolescents whilst in secondary education [and beyond].  The adolescent phase is known as BiB Age of Wonder

Within the cohort we capture mental and physical health, alongside genomic, health service, educational, digital and geospatial data.  We are able to respond to social and cultural shifts in agile manner.  BiB is one of the few large scale cohorts that can capture digital phenotypes and link them to health. 

Professor Simon Gilbody, Dr Ruth Wadman and Dr Lewis Paton will present some early findings on the mental health and wellbeing of the BiB participants, with motivating examples relating to eating disorders, body shape concerns and their relationship with culture, ethnicity, and economic [dis]advantage. 

BiB presents significant opportunities for rapid and efficient data sharing and academic collaboration to understand the life course determinants of health [including mental health] of young people in the UK.  The team will showcase their plans for data sharing and are keen to build on existing collaborations with UCL. 

Who we are

Professor Simon Gilbody will lead the discussion.  He is a clinician-epidemiologist who founded the mental health research group at the University of York over 20 years ago.  Simon is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences [FMedSci], two-term NIHR Senior Investigator and Doctor of Science.  He is a Wellcome-BiB Age of Wonder co-investigator, and led the selection of mental health phenotypes in BiB.  Simon remains a practicing psychiatrist in the City of Bradford. 

Dr Ruth Wadman is Associate Professor in Children and Young People’s Mental Health, with oversight of coproduction for the BiB Age of Wonder cohort.   

Dr Lewis Paton is Lecturer in Data Science and applies machine learning, statistical methods and causal modelling to the BiB dataset.  He enables open science and can facilitate data-sharing for the mental health dataset from BiB.