News & Resources

Latest news: Ruth Blackburn talks at the Catherine Peckham Symposium on her use of the ECHILD Database for evaluating the timing of stress-related presentation to hospital

22 November 2022

Ruth Blackburn's talk at the UCL ICH Catherine Peckham Symposium reported on her study that evaluated the timing of stress-related presentation to hospital in relation to school term or holidays and relationship with health behaviours, based on analyses of the ECHILD database of children in England.  The talk can be watched here: https://youtu.be/oHaKHSJ-WV0.

The study is also free-to-read in BJPsych Open here. 

 

Historical news

Read a fully history of project news articles here.

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Resources

This webpage indexes and links to resources that support understanding and use of the ECHILD database:

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ECHILD Studies and Reports

• Gestational age at birth, chronic conditions and school outcomes: a population-based data linkage study of children born in England - Paper published by the ECHILD team here:
  • https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac105/6589377 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac105). May 2022.
• Changes in adolescents’ planned hospital care during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of linked administrative data - Paper published by the ECHILD team here:
  • https://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2022/05/15/archdischild-2021-323616 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323616). May 2022.
• What makes administrative data research-ready? A systematic review and thematic analysis of published literature - Paper published by the ECHILD team here:
  • https://ijpds.org/article/view/1718 (DOI:https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v7i1.1718). April 2022.
• Deficits in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0 to 4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic - Pre-print published in medRxiv
  • https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.16.21267904v1. December 2021.
• Changes in hospital contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic among vulnerable children and young people - Report published by the ECHILD and NIHR funded Children and Families Policy Research Unit (CPRU) team here:
  • www.ucl.ac.uk/children-policy-research/projects/assessing-impact-covid-19-pandemic-vulnerable-children. November 2021.
• ECHILD Stakeholder Event Report: An ADR UK report from the ECHILD Stakeholder Event, highlighting the key messages from government and organisations representing children’s interests regarding the ECHILD Database.  This can be downloaded here:

  • echild_database_key_messages_from_stakeholders_aug_2021.pdf

    echild_database_key_messages_from_stakeholders_aug_2021.pdf
• Ethnic bias in data linkage - from how we collect data, to how we link it, and how we analyse it – the ECHILD project team have written a letter published in The Lancet Digital Health, to highlight that much more needs to be done to tackle the problem, this can be read here:
  • www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(21)00081-9/fulltext (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00081-9). June 2021.

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Data Resources

ECHILD resources

• ECHILD data visualisation: An overview of records and datasets - A data visual to explore the different types of de-identified records within the ECHILD database.
  • https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/echild/viz/ECHILD-Anoverviewofrecordsanddatasets/ECHILDOverviewofrecordsanddatasets.  June 2022.   
• Data Resource Profile: The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database - ECHILD data resource profile published by the ECHILD team here:
  • https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ije/dyab149/6425590 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab149). November 2021.
• Linking education and hospital data in England: Linkage process and quality - paper published in IJPDS.  More information can be found here and the paper itself is available here:
  •  https://ijpds.org/article/view/1671 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1671). September 2021.
• ECHILD Database at a glance: A summary of the key features and strengths of the ECHILD Database can be downloaded here:

  • The ECHILD Database - At a glance - v1.0.0 March 2021

    The ECHILD Database - At a glance - v1.0.0 March 2021
• ECHILD Database User Guide: The ECHILD Database spans more than two decades and includes linked school and hospital records for around 14.7 million pupils in England. It was created for the ECHILD project but, later this year, other researchers will be able to apply to access the ECHILD Database through the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service.  Download the user guide for the ECHILD database here:

  • The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database - An Introductory Guide for Researchers - v1.1.2

    The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database - An Introductory Guide for Researchers - v1.1.2
    Updated June 2022.
• ECHILD data catalogue: A catalogue of the NPS and HES data attributes within the ECHILD database is available on request:
  • Contact the ECHILD team
• ECHILD code: We place code (such as R and Stata code for the ECHILD linkage evauation) as well as code lists (e.g. ICD-10 code lists of phenotypes of chronic conditions) on Github:
  • https://github.com/UCL-CHIG

National Pupil Database (NPD) resources

• Data Resource: The National Pupil Database (NPD) - NPD data resource profile previously published by members of the ECHILD team here:
  • (https://ijpds.org/article/view/1101 DOI: https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.1101). March 2019.
• Data Resource Profile: Children Looked After Return (CLA) - NPD CLA data resource profile previously published by members of the ECHILD team here:
  • https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/45/3/716/2572883 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw117). July 2016.
• Cohort profile: Children in Need Census (CIN) records of children referred for social care support in England - NPD CIN data resource profile previously published by members of the ECHILD team here:
  • https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e023771 (DOI: http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023771). February 2019.
• UK Government tool to explore data in the National Pupil Database - A tool that allows users to find and explore information about the data that is held in the NPD:
  • https://find-npd-data.education.gov.uk/
• DfE National Pupil Database - NPD Data Tables - DfE published list of NPD data:
  • https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044839/NPD_Data_Tables_Oct21.xlsx.  October 2021.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) resources

• Hospital Episode Statistics Data Dictionary - The HES Data Dictionary contains detailed information on the fields from the admitted patient, outpatient, accident and emergency and all critical care data sets that are collected and used in HES

  • https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/hospital-episode-statistics/hospital-episode-statistics-data-dictionary.  February 2022.

• Data Resource Profile: Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care (HES APC) -  HES APC data resource profile previously published by members of the CHIG team here:

  • https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/4/1093/3072145 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyx015). August 2017.
• Resource Report: Understanding Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) - Report that summarise the HES database and its use within cohort and longitudinal studies, by CLOSER: University of Bristol, UCL IoE and University of Southampton.
  • https://www.closer.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/CLOSER-resource-understanding-hospital-episode-statistics-2018.pdf. April 2018.

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Videos

Hear thoughts on the value and potential benifits of the ECHILD database and research study

 

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/axUY81hWi-4 November 2021 Dr Nicolas Libuy Rios and Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone present the findings of the linkage evaluation used in ECHILD and share preliminary results from ongoing studies using the ECHILD data at Population Data BC.	YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/YMdXEjIAAwI October 2021 Christine Farquharson, an IFS Senior Research Economist working on ECHILD, discusses how ECHILD's data can be used to understand educational outcomes.
YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/XuCTL8d0Lxc October 2021 Christine Farquharson, an IFS Senior Research Economist working on ECHILD, discusses the exemplar studies being produced for the ECHILD project.	YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/-j_ElLTvbjY October 2021  Christine Farquharson, an IFS Senior Research Economist working on the ECHILD project, discusses the richness of ECHILD's data from combining health and education data.
YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/jfNFa-EsY3k August 2021 The ECHILD Project Partnership Pannel Members answer introductory questions at the April 2021 ECHILD Stakeholder Event.	YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/LMn2flKliDM April 2021 Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone uses a presentation from recent engagement with children and young people advisory groups to introduce the ECHILD database.
YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/Ia--9Gcz05o Jan 2021 ECHILD, a young research advisors views - A young research advisor from the Council for Disabled Children FLARE gives their view on the potential value of the ECHILD database.	MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/7e66C477 Dec 2020 ECHILD, the innovation and value for research - Dr Ruth Blackburn details the novel nature of the ECHILD database and the value it can bring to research and decision making.
MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/f59Affgb Dec 2020 ECHILD's potential value for research - Dr Ruth Blackburn introduces some of the kinds of research the ECHILD Database will support.	MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/DG0cg144 Dec 2020 ECHILD database and information security - Dr Ruth Blackburn introduces the information security around the ECHILD database.