MatCH (Mothers and their Children’s Health) Profile: offspring of the 1973-78 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health

Abstract

MatCH (Mothers and their Children's Health) is a nationwide Australian study to investigate the links between the history of health, wellbeing and living conditions of mothers and the health and development of their children. MatCH builds on the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), which began in 1996 and has surveyed more than 58,000 women in four nationally representative age cohorts. MatCH focuses on the three youngest offspring of the cohort of ALSWH participants randomly sampled from all women in Australia born in 1973-78 (N=5780 children of N=3039 mothers). These women, who had completed up to seven postal or online surveys since 1996, were invited in 2016-17 to complete surveys about the health and development of their three youngest children aged under 13. The mothers reported on their children's health conditions and symptoms, diet, anthropometric measures, childcare, screen time, physical activity, temperament, behaviour, language development, motor development and health service utilisation, as well as household and environmental factors. These data are being linked with each child's records from official sources including the Australian Early Development Census (collected at age five to six), the National Assessment Program -Literacy and Numeracy (collected at age eight, 10, 12 and 14) and other external datasets. MatCH will combine 20 years of maternal data with all the information on her children, taking into account the family setting. MatCH offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance our understanding of the relationship between maternal health and wellbeing and child health and development.

Adherence to screen time recommendations for Australian children aged 0–12 years

“…Non‐adherence to recommendations for maximum screen time varies with age, and the possibility of under‐reporting — the MatCH sample consisted of women with some characteristics associated with better adherence to guidelines (higher levels of education and work force participation) — means that it may be greater than we have estimated. The rapid uptake of screens by children before their third birthday is of particular concern because greater screen time increases the risk of poorer developmental outcomes .…”

“…We analysed data collected in 2015 for 3063 mothers in the 1973–1978 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (age, 37–42 years), and data collected in 2016–17 for their 5780 children in the Mothers and their Children's Health (MatCH) study . Human research ethics committees at the Universities of Newcastle (references, H‐076‐0795, H‐2014‐0246) and Queensland (references, 2004000224, 2014001213) approved both studies; all mothers provided informed consent.…”

Maternal preconception weight trajectories, pregnancy complications and offspring’s childhood physical and cognitive development

“…Sub-sample 2 were 708 children (and their mothers) who were eligible for having data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). 26 Full details of the eligibility and exclusion criteria for both these sub-samples are shown in Supplementary Fig. S1a and 1b, while characteristics of the mothers included in the ASQ and AEDC analyses versus those not included are presented in Supplementary Tables S2a and 2b. The Human Research Ethics Committees at the University of Newcastle and the University of Queensland approved both studies.…”

Testing the role of the timing and chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms in the associations with child behaviour and development

“…22 In 2016, invitations to be part of the Mothers and their Children's Health (MatCH) sub-study were sent to ALSWH participants who (1) had not died or withdrawn, (2) had consented to be contacted about sub-studies, and (3) had not reported infertility. 23 For the current study, mothers also had to have completed an ALSWH survey while pregnant with a MatCH child. Mothers were asked to report on their three youngest children aged under 13 years (ie born from 2004 onwards), and the response to MatCH for women known to be mothers was 48%.…”

“…Compared to the overall 1973-1978 ALSWH cohort, mothers who participated in MatCH were more likely to have a university education, be employed, and not smoke. 23 ALSWH data were collected at approximately 3-yearly intervals between 1996…”