Diana Kuh

Diana Jane Lewin Kuh is a British epidemiologist who is an emeritus professor of Life Course Epidemiology at University College London. She was formerly Scientific Director of the National Survey of Health and Development and the founding Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing. Kuh was named as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2018 and 2020 and as a top female scientist by Research.com in 2024.

Early life and education Kuh

Research and career In 1987, Kuh started working on the National Survey of Health and Development, a birth cohort study that followed over 5,000 participants from their births in one week in March 1946. She became Scientific Director of the National Survey of Health and Development in 2007. Her first work using the cohort study looked to understand the origins of cardiovascular disease and the contributions of early exposure. This became the basis of her doctoral research, earning a PhD at London School of Economics in 1993.

Kuh became interested in women's health in the early nineties. She took the opportunity to understand the menopause transition from data collected from female study members when they turned 43 years old, and annually between 47 and 54 years. Her research showed that breastfeeding, better socioeconomic circumstances and higher cognitive ability children correlated with later menopause. She went on to show the relationship between menopause, bone density and cardiovascular function. Kuh co-wrote A Life Course Approach to Women's Health, which explored the long-term influence of foetal, childhood and younger adult experiences on later health.

Kuh was instrumental in creating and advancing the field of life course epidemiology with Prof. Yoav Ben-Shlomo (University of Bristol) and has over 500 publications. She co-edited A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology, first published in 1997, and now in its third edition. She also co-edited A life course approach to healthy ageing. Her research showed that early life disadvantage has a profound impact on adult health and ageing. This included musculoskeletal ageing: for example, childhood adversity, lower birthweight, and earlier puberty were persistently associated with lower adult grip strength.

She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015.

Selected publications