Environment and family risk factors for children's hospital admissions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Housing, family and environmental risk factors for hospital admissions in children
IRAS ID
235275
Contact name
Pia Hardelid
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
PROJ-194, Administrative Data Research Network Registration; 18(7), National Statistician's Data Ethics Committee
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 10 months, 31 days
Research summary
Emergency hospital admission rates in children aged less than 15 years in England have increased by over 30% since 2000. Hospital admissions are highly stressful for parents and children, as well as costly for the National Health Service. Interventions which can reduce the need for children to be admitted to hospital are required.
Although UK hospital admission databases provide rich clinical data there is very limited detail about the family, household and local environment in which children grow up. These factors include air pollution levels, household overcrowding and quality of housing, which are associated with children’s health status, in particular the risk of developing infections and respiratory problems. Furthermore, important formal or informal barriers to parents seeking timely healthcare for children may exist, such as the right to register with a GP or ability to speak and understand English.
In this project, we propose to link a cohort of all babies born in England between 2005 to 2014 to 2011 Census data and small-area level data on air pollution and building characteristics. The birth cohort has already been created by linking birth and death registration data, NHS birth notification data and longitudinal hospital admission data for babies and their mothers. With the linked data we will answer two specific research questions:
1) Does outdoor air pollution and housing characteristics (such as type of heating and overcrowding) contribute to the risk of being admitted for respiratory tract infection in early childhood?, and
2) Is parental country of birth, year of migration and knowledge of English associated with potentially preventable hospital admissions in children?
Our results will be used to establish the relative contribution of modifiable environmental risk factors, housing quality and ease of access to preventive primary and community health services, to the hospital admission burden in young children.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1514
Date of REC Opinion
5 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion