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The original purpose of the Add Health study was to help understand the causes of adolescent health and health behaviour with special emphasis on the effects of multiple contexts of adolescent life.
The cohort was then followed through their transition to adulthood and research turned to understanding the determinants and consequences of developmental and health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.
Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents social, economic, psychological and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighbourhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships, providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviours in adolescence are linked to health and achievement outcomes in young adulthood. The fourth wave of interviews expanded the collection of biological data in Add Health to understand the social, behavioural, and biological linkages in health trajectories as the Add Health cohort ages through adulthood, and the fifth wave of data collection continues this biological data expansion (2016-2018).
Last update – 03/02/2017
Types General population-based cohort
Participant Types No diagnosis
Countries United Kingdom
Genders Male and Female
Sample sizes 20,000 to 49,999
Ages 10 to 19|20 to 39|40 to 59|60 to 100
Brain related measures Behaviour|Cognitive function|Mental health|Neurological
Funtional rating Individual psychological
Anthropometric Blood pressure|Height|Waist circumference|Weight
Physical Cardiovascular|Hearing and Vision|Reproductive
Biological samples Blood|Other|Saliva|Urine
Genotyping Gene screening
Brain imaging
Brain banking
Lifestyle Alcohol|Dietary habits|Physical activity|Smoking
Socio-economic Education|Ethnic group|Family circumstances|Housing and accommodation|Income and finances|Informal support|Marital status|Occupation and employment
Health service utilisation Formal health and social care service utilisation including private care
Institute names University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Current Sample Sizes 20,000 to 49,999
age at recruitment 7-12
last updated
recruitment period 1994-95
estimated current sample size number value 19828
cohort acronym Add Health
start date 1994-95
pi Professor Kathleen Mullan Harris
website http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth
contact details Add Health
Carolina Population Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 8120
206 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
abstract Add Health is a population cohort recruiting 20,745 participants in Grades 7-12. It is now on its fifth wave where is has added biological data to the original social, economic and psychological data to the original study.
funders Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Cancer Institute
National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS
National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Nursing Research
National Institute on Aging
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Science Foundation
Office of AIDS Research, NIH
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, DHHS
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, NIH
Office of the Director, NIH
Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DHHS
Office of Minority Health, Office of Public Health and Science, DHHS
Office of Population Affairs, DHHS
Office of Research on Women’s Health, NIH
MacArthur Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
contact email Email: [email protected] Project Co-ordinator Email: [email protected] and [email protected] PI Email: [email protected]
contact phone number
estimated current sample size 10,000 to 19,999
sample sizes 20745