The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (hereafter the Dunedin Study) is an ongoing longitudinal investigation of health and behaviour of a complete birth cohort that was drawn from the greater Dunedin metropolitan area (geographical area n = 3315 square kilometres, population 120,000), located in the southern coastal region of New Zealand’s South Island. Study participants (n = 1037) were born between April 1st 1972 and March 30, 1973 and first followed up at age three, forming the base sample for the longitudinal study. This long-running study was preceded by a pilot study on n = 250 four and 5-year-olds born in 1968, led by Phil Silva, a former teacher and educational psychologist (who later became the founding director of the Dunedin study). The pilot sample was drawn from a larger study of perinatal health conducted by paediatrician Dr Patricia Buckfield between 1968 and 1974 [1].
