Original ECPBHS

The Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study (ECPBHS) is a prospective longitudinal multidistsiplinary study initiated in 1998 by Maarike Harro (1960-2006) and Jaanus Harro. The study participants (N=1176) were randomly selected from 9 and 15 years old schoolchildren from Tartu County in Estonia, and they have participated in four study waves.

The general aim of ECPBHS is to shed light into the factors that influence health behaviour and the development of health. During the study wave, different aspects of both mental and physical health, risky behaviour, nutrition, physical activity, psychosocial well-being, impulsivity and personality are examined. ECPBHS is characterized by an excellent population-representative and high participation rate.

ECPBHS is carried on by scientists from University of Tartu and National Institute for Health Development in Estonia. However, we have partners from other institutions like Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden, and University of Würzburg in Germany. Based on ECPBHS data, ten doctoral dissertations and more than eighty scientific papers have been published.