About the Mother’s and their Children’s Health Substudy

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mother with girl and boy

Mothers and their Children’s Health – MatCH – is a substudy of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (also known as Women’s Health Australia) and was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council from 2014 to 2019.

Using a life course approach, MatCH combines detailed data from the 1973-78 Cohort with new information about their children. MatCH investigates how maternal and family characteristics – collected for over 20 years – impact the health and development of the next generation.

MatCH paints a picture of family health and health service use that is unparalleled, supporting a more integrated and targeted approach to health care for all Australian families.

MatCH is approved by The University of Newcastle and The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committees (Protocols H-2014-0246 and 2014001213, respectively). Subject to mothers’ consent, MatCH also includes children’s linked educational records (Australian Early Development Census and NAPLAN). Child record linkage for MatCH is also approved by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Human Research Ethics Committee (Protocol EO2017/1/342). [Read more about MatCH data linkage].

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