§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what research his Department has carried out on the influence of childhood nutrition and nutritional status on health and adulthood; and if he will make a statement; [36376]
(2) what research his Department has undertaken into the responsibility of a relationship between infant feeding and schizophrenia; and if he will make a statement. [36366]
§ Mr. HoramThe Government have funded three studies, with long-term follow-up, of nationally representative groups of babies born in 1946, 1958, and 1970. These individuals, the oldest of whom are 50 years, continue to be followed up with support from the Medical Research Council, which receives its grant in aid from the office of my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade. These three studies have provided a basis of much research on the influence of childhood nutrition and nutritional status on health in adulthood.
Two Medical Research Council-funded units have a particular interest in infant and child nutrition and on its effect on health in later childhood and during adult life.
The MRC Dunn clinical nutrition centre, in Cambridge, co-ordinates a multi-centre study of feeding and nutrition of pre-term infants. Follow-up of the study participants has continued since their birth in the mid-1980s. Contact will be maintained with these individuals as they enter adult life.
The MRC environmental epidemiology unit in Southampton has reported a range of retrospective studies which assess relationships between adult health and aspects of nutrition in infancy including method of feeding and infant weight.
We are unaware of any research into relationships between infant feeding and schizophrenia.