Connected Bradford: Data Linkage of healthcare and education data
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Linking healthcare and education data across the Bradford and Airedale region to identify the impact education has on child obesity, asthma, diabetes and neurodevelopmental conditions
IRAS ID
231832
Contact name
Jane Dennison
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 29 days
Research summary
This study’s primary aim is to develop a linked dataset for individuals that have routinely recorded electronic education and healthcare records across Bradford and Airedale to provide a coherent picture of whether patterns seen in education map to later healthcare needs and vice-versa whether healthcare needs later impact children’s education over a period of 11 years. Many children and young people are affected by childhood obesity, asthma and diabetes or have neurodevelopmental conditions; the most common conditions include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Although signs can be present from infancy, children with neurodevelopmental conditions, obesity, asthma and diabetes are often diagnosed late in their primary school years or even older. Diagnosis is important for the wellbeing of a child and their family as it enables parents to better understand their child and access support. Clues to a diagnosis may be noticed within the educational environment but are currently not systematically acted upon. All children in education are routinely assessed in areas including communication and language development, physical development, social development, literacy, mathematics, understanding of the world and expressive arts/design. Some of these areas map to the symptomatology of neurodevelopmental impairments. It is additionally thought that there are inequalities in accessing and navigating the current pathways to diagnosis with ensuing inequalities in access to treatment. Social determinants of health including level of parental education may contribute to these inequalities. At present, there is a lack of detailed analysis of the socioeconomic and demographic profile of parents and whether this impacts on their access to services.
By linking education and healthcare data we hope to identify groups of patients that may benefit from alternative care and earlier intervention, improve and evaluate the pathway locally for diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders, obesity, asthma and diabetes.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0364
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion