Aisling Murray, a researcher on the Growing Up in Ireland study team, presented to the Women's Health Taskforce, which was recently established by the Department of Health.

1. Growing Up
in Ireland:
Presentation to
Women’s Health
Taskforce
Dr Aisling Murray
ESRI

2. What is Growing Up in Ireland?
• The national longitudinal study of children
and young people
• Started in 2006 with two large, nationally
representative cohorts (9 months and 9 years)
• Same children and their families are
interviewed in their homes every few years
• Funded and overseen by the Government of
Ireland
• through the Department of Children and
Youth Affairs in association with the CSO
• Over-arching objective is to provide evidence
to inform Government policy on families and
children

3. Timeline of Growing Up in Ireland
Start of
Growing
Up in
Ireland
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
8,500 9-
year-olds
recruited
Age 13
interview
Age
17/18
interview
Age 20
interview
11,134 9-
month-
olds
recruited
Age 3
interview
Age 5
interview
Age 7/8
postal
survey
Age 9
interview
Age 13
interview
Child
Cohort
‘98
Infant
Cohort
‘08

4. Multi-disciplinary coverage
Cognitive/
Educational
Development
Health
Socio-Emotional
Development
Economic / Civic
Participation

5. Coverage
of health
topics
• General health
• Chronic conditions
• Height and weight
(BMI)
• Health service
utilisation
• Diet and exercise
• Emotional/mental
health
• Blood pressure
• Waist
circumference
• Vaccinations
• Disordered
eating
• Substance use
• Sexual activity
• Pregnancy
• Self-harm
Most/all waves Occasional waves

11. Summary
points
• Growing Up in lreland collects physical
and mental health data at multiple
time-points between 9 months and 20
years (using two cohorts)
• All data can be classified by gender
• Females tend to fare worse on
indicators of obesity and mental health,
and this gap appears to widen with age
• Data are freely available to researchers;
although some detail requires
permission from the CSO
• Data from the most recent 20 year
phase will be available in Spring 2020

12. Acknowledgments
GUI colleagues, especially Dr
Eoin McNamara (ESRI)
Participating children, young
adults, families and schools
Department of Children and
Youth Affairs and Central
Statistics Office
More information on
www.growingup.ie