Analysis of Cohorts and Routine Data
Unit staff conduct extensive research on the secondary analysis of large cohort studies and routine datasets. Some examples are listed below.
Millennium Cohort Study
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a longitudinal observational study of nearly 19,000 babies born in the UK between September 2000 and January 2002. A random two-stage sample of infants who were alive and living in the UK at age 9 months was drawn from Child Benefit registers that cover virtually all children. Parents were interviewed for the first time when the children were aged 9 months and again at 3, 5, 7 and 11 years. Detailed information was collected on a range of socio-economic, educational and health factors. The MCS is being co-ordinated by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education.
Staff in the NPEU have worked on several MCS studies including:
Infertility
- A population-based study of the effect of infertility and its treatment on child health and development
- Association between infertility treatment and perinatal outcomes and infant health and development in a national UK survey
- Women's experience of treatment for infertility
Breastfeeding
- The protective effects of breastfeeding in a national UK survey
- The effect of breastfeeding on child development
Preterm birth
ALSPAC
The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as Children of the 90s, is a pregnancy and birth cohort study which has been used in a number of studies on maternal and child health. It contains detailed information on genetic and environmental determinants of health and disease. More than 14 000 women living in the Avon region of South West England were recruited into the study between April 1991 and December 1992: the women, their partners and the children have been followed-up since enrollment. The study is based at the University of Bristol and funded by a number of bodies including the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the University of Bristol. The study website is: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac.
Staff in the NPEU have worked on several ALSPAC studies including:
- Alcohol in pregnancy: Effects of prenatal alcohol consumption and alcohol metabolising genes on child growth and neurodevelopment in the ALSPAC study
- What makes children resilient? Investigating the mechanisms of resilience in children whose mothers were postnatally depressed
Routine data
Examples of recent projects that have used routine data include:
- Factors associated with breastfeeding: an area-based analysis (FAB). This used area-based routine data on infant feeding
- The inequalities in infant mortality project. This project produced a series of policy briefing papers that used data from a variety of routine sources: