Chronic Conditions to Education
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The relationship between education and health outcomes for children and young people across England
IRAS ID
232547
Contact name
Ruth Gilbert
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 2 days
Research summary
The strong interrelationship between health and education in relation to children with chronic conditions is recognised by policy makers in the UK, but evidence is lacking on how services complement or compensate for each other and there have been calls for a stronger evidence base to be developed. The World Health Organisation published a report reviewing the impact of health and health behaviours on educational outcomes and highlighted that more European research in the area is required.
This study has three aims, namely to:
1. Evaluate linkage success between National Pupil Database, Personal Demographic Service and hospital admission data.
2. Evaluate the association between children and adolescents with underlying chronic conditions, as recorded in hospital admissions, and subsequent school achievement
3. Evaluate the association between education outcomes and subsequent use of hospital services, taking into account underlying chronic conditions.
The study will use a pseudonymised linked dataset derived from existing administrative databases held by the Health & Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and the Department for Education (DfE). This study will first test the feasibility and accuracy of linkage and will publish the results to inform researchers and government departments of match rates and variation in linkage success. Then using the linked data, we will examine whether low school achievement is associated with subsequent emergency admissions to hospital, and whether health problems, manifest in admissions to hospital are associated with subsequent changes in school achievement. We will examine how these associations vary by local authority and type of school, taking into account factors at the individual level (e.g. chronic conditions, free school meals, ethnicity) that might affect both school achievement and emergency use of hospital services. Evidence on such risk factors will be important for generating hypotheses about how healthcare and schools policy can reduce adverse outcomes for children and adolescents.REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1494
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion