Phase 3: preschool - abcd.amsterdamumc.nl

Phase 3 concerned children’s health and development at age 5. Mothers again received a questionnaire to complete. In addition, the child’s teacher was also asked to complete a short questionnaire about the child’s behaviour at school. Finally, the children themselves were extensively measured and tested during the ABCD consultation.

Mother’s questionnaires

The first questionnaire for mothers consisted of questions on their child’s health, development and education; 4488 mothers completed this questionnaire. The second questionnaire, completed by 2851 mothers, asked in detail about the child’s eating habits to determine the child’s intake of energy and nutrients.

Teacher questionnaire

The teacher questionnaire included questions on school performance (CITO) and the child’s behaviour at school. 3588 teachers completed this questionnaire.

ABCD consultation

During the ABCD consultation, 3321 children were examined in detail at school. This included measuring and testing their weight, height, hip circumference, waist circumference, blood pressure, heart rate and thinking ability. A small amount of blood was also drawn from 2452 children by finger pricking.

ABCD-GE study

1200 Dutch children whose blood was collected during the ABCD consultation were genotyped with the the Illumina HumanCoreExome BeadChip. Using GWAS techniques, hereditary predisposition and gene-environment interaction for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cognitive and behavioural development will be studied. The ABCD study collaborates with other studies in consortia such as EGG (Early Growth Genetics) and EAGLE (EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology) for this purpose.

Phase 3b

In addition, new data were collected in 2011 and 2012 on the child’s environment when the children were 7-8 years old. Using a questionnaire for parents and measurements at primary schools in Amsterdam, we collected more information on environmental factors that may affect the child’s health, such as air pollution, environmental noise and electromagnetic fields.