Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study

Aims
Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study is a nationally representative twin cohort study that aims to build a knowledge about how environmental and genetic factors contribute to behaviours and the development of mental health problems from childhood through to young adulthood. Through the years, data have been collected about many different topics, including mental health, obesity, asthma, school performance, criminal offending, violence victimisation, neighbourhood conditions, the family environment, and also biomarkers to investigate inflammation, gene expression, epigenetic DNA methylation, telomeres, and neuropsychological functions.

Institution
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London

Geographic coverage - Nations
England, Wales

Geographic coverage - Regions
Nationwide

Start date
1998

Catalogue record last updated
12/04/2024

Sample type
Birth cohort (twin design)

Sample details
The E‐risk sampling frame was two consecutive birth cohorts (1994 and 1995) in the Twins' Early Development Study (TEDS), a birth register of twins born in England and Wales. The sample was constructed in 1999–2000, when 1,116 families (93% of those eligible) with same-sex 5-year-old twins participated in home-visit assessments. The sample comprised 56% monozygotic (MZ) and 44% dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs; sex was evenly distributed within zygosity (49% male).

Families were recruited to represent the UK population with newborns in the 1990s, to ensure adequate numbers of children in disadvantaged homes and to avoid an excess of twins born to well-educated women using assisted reproduction. The resulting study sample represents the full range of socioeconomic conditions in Great Britain; the families’ distribution is reflected on a neighbourhood-level socioeconomic index (ACORN) that very closely matches the national distribution.

Sample size at recruitment
2,232 individuals

Sample size at most recent sweep
2,066 individuals (2013 - 18 Years)

Sex
All

Age at recruitment
TEDS First Contact: 1.5 years
E-Risk: 5 years

Cohort year of birth
1994-95