The ARCHER Study - understanding how puberty hormone change affects health, wellbeing and behaviour in Australian adolescents living in regional New South Wales

The ARCHER study is a six-year multidisciplinary longitudinal cohort study using a community sample of adolescents living in/around Dubbo and Orange in regional NSW. The study hypothesis is that onset and/or tempo of the rise in puberty hormones (testosterone and oestradiol) play a significant role in adolescent health, wellbeing and behaviour. As such, the study measures three/six-monthly change in urinary testosterone and oestradiol (see below), annual change in serum testosterone and oestradiol, and relates these hormonal changes to annual measures of physical health, mental health, wellbeing, behaviour and cognition. Data collection involves collection of a three-monthly first-morning urine sample during years 1-3 of the study, and a six-monthly first-morning urine sample during years 4-6 of the study (all urine samples collected at home), as well as baseline and annual study visits. At the study visits, adolescents undergo physical examination, complete a battery of questionnaires related to physical and mental health, wellbeing, behaviour and a cognition test. Parents/guardians complete a battery of questionnaires seeking demographic and family information. At around the time of annual visits, adolescents also provide a fasting morning blood sample (completed at the local pathology centre in Orange or Dubbo). All biological samples are biobanked at -80 degrees for future analyses. The study recruited adolescents and their parent/guardian over a 27-month period between June 2011 and August 2013. The last recruited participant reached the third year of follow-up in mid-2016. It is expected that the cohort will complete six years of follow-up by August 2019.