LifeCourse

Group of smiling children

Leveraging longitudinal cohorts to provide a healthy start to life

The Melbourne Children’s LifeCourse Initiative brings together an impressive collection of longitudinal cohort studies from across the Melbourne Children’s Campus.

We aim to harness the rich and robust data collected across 24 core longitudinal cohort studies, to understand some of the most complex health and wellbeing issues facing young people today.

Visit the LifeCourse website

The Melbourne Children’s LifeCourse Initiative brings together an impressive collection of longitudinal cohort studies from across the Melbourne Children’s Campus.

We aim to harness the rich and robust data collected across 24 core longitudinal...

The Melbourne Children’s LifeCourse Initiative brings together an impressive collection of longitudinal cohort studies from across the Melbourne Children’s Campus.

We aim to harness the rich and robust data collected across 24 core longitudinal cohort studies, to understand some of the most complex health and wellbeing issues facing young people today.

Visit the LifeCourse website

Our LifeCourse cohorts capture the health and development of over 118,000 participants, from pre-conception through to adulthood (including two intergenerational cohorts), dating back to 1983.

These cohorts collectively hold millions of data points and are supplemented by exceptional data in biosamples, imaging, and linkage to administrative datasets.

This unparalleled data resource has the power to answer some of the most pressing questions in child and adolescent health and wellbeing that could not be answered by one study on its own.

We support our cohort custodians and potential data users, by equipping them with the tools, collaborations and access to produce more meaningful and robust research.

We also promote a thriving community of practice for longitudinal data custodians and researchers, facilitating the sharing of knowledge and novel approaches and maximising the impact created by our researchers.

Launched in 2013, the Melbourne Children’s LifeCourse Initiative brings together longitudinal cohort studies from members of the Melbourne Children’s Campus (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital, and the University of Melbourne).

This platform has allowed a rich and dynamic resource to emerge, that is unmatched in its power and possibility and has already shaped meaningful policy and clinical care nationally and internationally.

LifeCourse strives to make cohort data findable, browsable and accessible.