If you were born in 1961 and attended a Tasmanian school, you likely took part in the world’s biggest respiratory health study. Researchers are now hoping to track down the original participants for a follow-up health check.
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00:00In 1968, Tasmanian researchers were worried about rising rates of asthma, so they recruited
00:08almost every seven-year-old in the state to help uncover why.
00:12Tim Mullen's mother signed him up.
00:14I do recall as a young lad being in the car or at the beach, places like that, where my
00:22sister was struggling to breathe and it was quite concerning.
00:25Eight and a half thousand children took part in the initial study.
00:29Some, like Tim, have undergone follow-up examinations every seven years.
00:34They involve a series of breathing exercises and measurements, including a lung capacity test.
00:39And if I can add value to the medical research and the common good, then that's great.
00:45The findings gathered over the past 56 years have discovered links between childhood conditions,
00:51genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors, and respiratory illnesses in adults.
00:56It's also helped expand Medicare rebates for people suffering sleep apnea.
01:01More recently, we've learnt a lot more about the trajectories of people's lung function,
01:07how some people tend to decline faster over time.
01:11Considered the largest and longest-running respiratory health project in the world, researchers
01:17are now entering the seventh decade, with a push to find as many of the original participants as possible.
01:23As our population ages, we're interested in other respiratory diseases, in particular
01:31a disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that is mainly related to smoking.
01:37Researchers have already reconnected with around 2,000 original participants and are
01:42hoping to double that, expanding the search interstate and overseas.