Six decades of longitudinal health knowledge production: a systematic review on Nordic birth cohort studies

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Anna Reetta Rönkä, Annukka Sailo, Noora Hirvonen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2023
• Subjects: Birth cohort; cohort studies; systematic review; knowledge production; longitudinal studies; Nordic countries; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2023.2278815; https://doaj.org/article/9defd97bbdee406ba1950710161f0280

ABSTRACTThis systematic review (a) identifies birth cohort studies (BCSs) established in the Nordic countries, (b) describes their basic characteristics, and (c) explores how these characteristics have evolved over time, discussing their implications to knowledge production. To identify Nordic BCSs, cohort databases and relevant scientific articles were systematically searched and screened.The review shows that since 1959, more than 600,000 index children have participated in the 79 Nordic BCSs (22 Danish, 20 Finnish, 12 Norwegian, 24 Swedish, one Icelandic), over half of them still ongoing. The Nordic BCSs cover a wide geographical area including the Nordic Arctic. The topics of BCSs have varied over time but most have focused on examining the developmental origins of diseases. A quarter of them had a general scope, while the rest started with a specific focus, commonly atopic diseases. All BCSs collected questionnaire and/or interview data and over 60% of the BCSs announced exclusion criteria for participants, typically insufficient language proficiency.NBCSs have produced crucial scientific knowledge for over six decades, but there are underutilised opportunities including systematic interdisciplinary collaboration, inclusion of children’s own views of their health and well-being, intergenerational data collection, and specific knowledge of Arctic indigenous peoples and other minorities.