On Saturday June 23rd 2018 we were delighted to host our Hertfordshire Cohort Study Open Day at Harpenden Public Halls as part of the MRC Festival of Medical Research. We were thrilled to see so many of our cohort participants again and to meet their spouses, friends, children and grandchildren. We are currently recruiting participants for our inter-generational study (HCS3G) so it was particularly exciting to meet the descendants of our original 1930’s “Hertfordshire babies”.
Our guests were welcomed on arrival and invited to chat to members of the HCS scientific team in our exhibition room. Some very competitive measuring of grip strength got underway and some great conversations were had about lifetime memories of diet and what it has meant to people to take part in HCS. An original 1930’s health visitor ledger was on display and proved particularly fascinating for our guests; after all, the ledgers are where HCS began and the early life records of every one of our 1930’s “Hertfordshire babies” appear in a similar ledger.
After visiting the exhibition room our guests were invited to take refreshments in the main theatre and Prof Cooper (HCS principal investigator and Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit) gave a talk about the important scientific knowledge that has come from HCS, particularly in the areas of a lifecourse approach to osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and sarcopenia (the loss of muscle mass, strength and function with age). A lively question and answer session rounded off proceedings and all that remained was to thank our guests for joining us … and of course to make sure that George the Skeleton didn’t miss his bus back to Southampton!
Some photos from the event are shown below. Thank you once again to everyone who joined us!
