Cohort Profile: The Shanghai Children’s Health, Education and Lifestyle Evaluation, Preschool (SCHEDULE-P) study

Abstract

Early childhood development (ECD) is defined as the period from conception up to school entry. It is a unique opportunity for children's cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. Neuroscientific evidence has proved that both adverse and positive experiences would affect brain development, influencing subsequent health and development. 2,3 Thus, beneficial effect of intervention of this period has been shown in adult health, 4 competence, 5 reduction of violence and crime 6 and development of the subsequent generation. According to the global estimation, 43% of children in low-income and middleincome countries (LMICs) are at risk of poor development, 8 and they are subject to an average of 26% loss of adult income. 9 Given the importance of ECD, it was included in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure that all children have access to quality ECD, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education. lthough previous cohort studies have explored how early circumstances can influence later development, the risk factors and current levels of ECD have not been assessed systematically. The Millennium Cohort study, started in 2000, followed the lives of around 19 000 children born in the UK, which has found that circumstances such as child poverty and family issues influence later health and development and thus has informed the development of early years policy and practice and service provision in disadvantaged children. 11 However, this cohort mostly focused on physical health and cognitive abilities in early years. In 2017, built on empirical evidence of ECD,