MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health

Our research in this area is directed to understanding the potential risks that infection acquired by the mother in pregnancy may pose to the fetus and the child at birth.

Accurate information on the frequency of the infection being passed on to the fetus or baby is central to planning and evaluating prevention, diagnosis and treatment policies and practice.

We study many different infections, including rubella (German measles), HIV, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis and hepatitis C.

The health effects of some infections acquired in early life may not be evident until many years later. Some of our research looks at these later health consequences of early-life infections.

For more information see Infections

By using long-term data gathered though birth cohort studies we can discover more about how factors in early life influence our health as adults. For example, how does being overweight as a child affect cardiovascular health as an adult?

Answering these questions is crucial to understanding the origins of emerging health issues that are placing increasing pressure on our health and public services.

For more information see Life-course research and Childhood origins of adult disease

Measuring the size, height and weight of infants and children is relatively straightforward. However, the analysis of these measurements to transform them into an indicator of potential problems with a child’s growth and development is complex.

Our research in this area has contributed to the development of growth charts that are used by parents, healthcare workers and researchers worldwide. 

For more information see Statistical methods and Growth and development

Our research in this area includes a range of surveillance studies that have been instrumental in improving screening and treatment policies in the UK for a number of conditions with which infants are born. 

As well as trying to improve our understanding of what causes these disorders, our research also aims to understand how they may affect a child’s health over the course of their life time.

More more information see Infections, Congenital and inherited disorders and Growth and development

With the development of electronic health records there are new opportunities to link different sources of population and health data.

Effective linkage will allow us to follow children as they age, providing valuable sources of data to better understand the long-term effects of how our health and experiences in childhood affect our health throughout life.

For more information see Electronic health records

By developing new methods for analysing complex data and data gathered over long periods of time in both clinical and population studies, we can gain an even better understanding of growth, development and factors influencing long-term health.

For more information see Statistical methods

Genetic and Biological data gathered within the context of clinical or population studies can provide new insights into the causes of health and disease.  Through funding dedicated to this area, we aim to develop skills and methodologies that take full advantage of the genetic and biological data in population and other studies.

For more information see: Genetic epidemiology

Evaluating, providing evidence for improvement, and identifying where new research could inform better policies is essential if our research is to have an impact.

To do this we must understand how our research is, and can be, relevant to policy-makers and the information they need. This theme focuses on extending our work around health services and public health research.

For more information see Research for policy and practice