AAOF Wright State University Fels Longitudinal Study Overview

The Wright State University Fels Longitudinal Study

Curator: Richard Sherwood PhD

Institution: Lifespan Health Research Center - Department of Community Health, Wright State University

Initiated in 1929, the Fels Longitudinal Study currently is the worlds largest and longest running study of human growth and body composition change over the lifespan (Roche, 1992). Unlike other growth studies initiated at the same time, the Fels Longitudinal Study continues to recruit new subjects and collect data from the original participants. It has been used for early childhood growth data for the National Growth Charts, as well as for widely used research techniques for skeletal aging of both the hand-wrist and knee (Roche et al., 1988). To date, there have been over 1,200 serial participants in the study, most of whom having participated in the study since birth. These individuals are from over 200 nuclear and extended families. In addition, there are some 1,500 of their relatives from whom mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal data are available. This is a randomly ascertained cohort in that participating families were not selected for any specific feature or trait (including any craniofacial trait), and is, therefore, a study of normal variation in such traits. Study participants generally live in or near southwest Ohio (Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia) and were born between 1929 and the present. Participant examinations are scheduled at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age, and then at 6-month intervals until age 18 years. Thereafter, participants have biennial examinations. Participants continue life-long examinations in the study, and some have over 30 lateral cephalographs spanning up to 45 years in the life of an individual.

Cranial radiography of Fels Longitudinal Study participants began in 1931 and terminated in 1982 with a move to a different research facility. Included in the Fels Longitudinal Study data are over 10,000 lateral cephalographs. While most of these were used to document craniofacial growth up to 20 years of age, there are a significant number of radiographs from individuals late into adulthood. Because of the length and continuity of the Fels Longitudinal Study, it contains many multi-generation, extended families.