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General statistics

The Chingford Study began in June 1989 with 1003 female volunteers. 

They were born between March 1922 and December 1946. The average age of women on the Study at the beginning was 54.2 years.

Heights of the women at the start of the study ranged from 144cm to 183cm, with an average for the group of 161.6cm.

Weights of the volunteers ranged from 37-99kg at aged 20 (average 56kg), and 40-130kg at the start of the study (average 67kg).

2091 children were born to the original 1003 women, with a maximum of 9 children born to a single mother and an average of 2.1.

Almost 24% of Chingford volunteers were on HRT at the start of the study and this had increased to almost 29% by Year 10 of the Study. Of those that were taking HRT at Year 10, almost 9% had taken it for more than 10 years.

89% of the women are right handed, 9% left-handed and 2% claim to be ambidextrous.

Occupations of the women varied widely, the largest group (17.5%) being retired at the start of the study.

The number of women smoking has dropped over the course of the study, reflecting the general trend in the British population. Almost 54% of the women have never smoked. In June 1989, 23% of the women in the study did smoke and a further 23% had been smokers but had given up. 

In Year 2, a survey of physical activity and exercise was carried out, which revealed that the majority of women walked between 1/2 and 5 miles per week, but the majority of women did not do any form of sport at all.

In June of 1989, 38% of volunteers were on medication (other than HRT). By June of 1998, this figure had increased to 51% and by the beginning of 1999, this figure had risen again to 58%.

By Year 10 of the study, more than a quarter (27.3%) of the total number of Chingford women had suffered at least one fracture at some time. The largest number of these being colles (wrist) fractures.

Spine and hip scans were that were carried out during Year 8 have shown that around 10% of women scanned show some degree of bone loss in the lumbar spines and almost 13% show loss in the neck of the femur.

The types of shoes worn in younger years may cause osteoarthritis of the feet and bunions in later life.
A footwear questionnaire was introduced in Year 10 to try to gather evidence of these theories. Of the women who attended the Year 10 clinic almost one fifth had never worn heels higher than 2”. Nearly 7% women suffered ankle injuries as a result of wearing heels. The percentage of women having bunions appears to be similar whether or not they had been wearing heels.