Proposal summaries
B3533 - Association between childhood trauma cognitive styles and depression - 12/05/2020
Existing research on depression vulnerability shows that early experiences such as exposure to childhood abuse could leave âcognitive scarsâ, which could increase vulnerability in later stages of life. Childhood emotional maltreatment is found to be strongly associated with vulnerability to psychopathology in comparison to physical and sexual maltreatment.(1) Adolescents having experienced childhood maltreatment were shown to depict reduced positive spontaneous thought, a feature of ruminative thinking constituting a risk factor for depression.(2) However, the role of mediating factors like cognitive styles in the association between childhood trauma and depression could be further explored. Various trauma types excepting physical neglect, predict depressive rumination, which predicts depression.(3) The differential association between age of exposure to trauma or specific trauma types and depression could be further researched as exposure to trauma in adolescence may have a greater effect size than that during early childhood with regard to developing increased odds of psychotic experiences. Examining the influence of mediating factors could be beneficial for preventing mental health issues such as distress and impairment at the population level by targeting negative cognitive styles.(4) Age groups requiring further support and intervention could be identified for addressing specific types of childhood trauma
B3534 - Depressogenic thinking in adolescence and depressive mood across early adulthood - 12/05/2020
Depression has become a common mental illness, and It is crucial to establish and study depressive symptoms through early adolescence across adolescence to early adulthood. It is vital to characterize specific causes and certain types of depression in populations to help identify critical points for intervention and treatment. Studies on Depressogenic thinking (i.e., negative cognitive styles) in early adolescence suggest there is an association with the development of depressive mood in this age group. However, the long-lasting effect of depressogenic thinking is not known, especially in early adulthood or later ages. This project will examine how different profiles of depressogenic thinking are associated with varying types of depression and depressive mood (e.g., irritability, anhedonia, depressive thoughts, fatigue or sleeping) and identify the mechanisms underlying negative thoughts (styles) and later depression. Although CBT and medication are used in treatment for diagnosed cases of depression, this study may potentially develop early intervention strategies that may target early adolescence to improve depressogenic thinking to prevent depression in early adulthood and beyond.
B3536 - Effect of adverse childhood experiences on adolescent depression anxiety and self harm An analysis in the ALSPAC cohort - 12/05/2020
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been consistently linked to psychiatric difficulties in adolescents. Individuals with at least 4 ACEs are at four times the risk of experiencing mental distress and disorder in their lives. ACEs have been estimated to contribute to approximately 30% of cases of anxiety and 40% of depression in adults in a North American sample and more than a quarter for both conditions in Europe. The combined annual costs of depression and anxiety attributed to ACEs were approximately $51 billion in Europe and $82 billion in North America. Adolescence is a tumultuous time, with significant life events and high rates of mental disorder occurring during this life stage. It is essential to assess the effect of exposure to ACEs on the severity of mental disorders at this stage in the life course.
B3537 - Relationship between early school experiences and adolescent self harm an analysis using the ALSPAC birth cohort - 12/05/2020
Improving the mental health of children and young people is a national priority in the UK. The rate of self-harm amongst adolescents ranges from 6.9 to 18.8 % in the UK. Schools can provide an environment that encourages positive mental health at an early age and prevents poor mental health in later years. Positive relationships with peers and positive perceptions of school connectedness (that is, adolescentsâ sense of belonging and attachment to school) are associated with increases in adolescentsâ psychosocial wellbeing and decreases in the number of mental health issues. School absenteeism is also associated with an increased risk of self-harm. Levels of school absenteeism may be reduced if early school experiences are of a positive nature. There is also an association of suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm with adverse experiences at school and even minor events like not enjoying school or class work and the feeling about teachers being unclear with respect to their behaviour. We will investigate if early school experiences are associated with adolescent self-harm in the ALSPAC cohort.
B3538 - Early metabolic features of adiposity-related cancer susceptibility - 12/05/2020
Cancers develop for many years before they are diagnosed. Using data from first-generation ALSPAC offspring, we aim in this study to estimate the effects of being more genetically susceptible to obesity-related cancers that commonly emerge in adulthood on metabolic traits measured in blood across early life; this should help to reveal what early stages of cancer development look like and when they occur. More specifically, we will examine associations of genetic risk scores for different cancers that are known to be influenced by obesity, e.g. colorectal cancer, with traits from targeted metabolomics measured in childhood (age 8y), adolescence (age 15y), and young adulthood (age 18y and 25y). This allows us to view subtle changes in metabolism over time which precede the onset of clinically detectable cancer by several decades. Recognizing the early signs of cancer development is vital for informing early detection, preventing its onset in older age, and improving survival.
B3530 - Health and wellbeing in surviving congenital heart disease patients - 14/05/2020
Patients with congenital heart (CHD) disease now live longer and therefore they are more likely to experience common aging condition.
One of these are cardiovascular disease (CVD) with relative morbidity and mortality.However, whether the established risk factors for CVD in the general population are the same with CHD is unclear.
In addition, there is a substantial evidence that risk for CVD begins in early life and that risk factors (e.g. obesity, high blood pressure, dyslipidaemia)measured in childhood and adolescence track and relate to adult risk, but the prevalence of these in children with CHD and their future risk on CVD is unknown and may differ from the general population.
Another issue for the aging CHD population is regarding their educational achievement. Academic performance represent a main area of interest as this is anticipated to have major impact in their quality of life. It's well recognised that some children with CHD can present neurocognitive impairment when compared to the general population. However, whether this has a significant effect in their overall academic performance remains unclear with discordant results reported.
To our knowledge there are no study that investigate the trajectories of cardiovascular risk factor and neurocognitive development (in term of educational achievement)from early childhood to adulthood life.
B3532 - The role of neighbourhood conditions in mental health responses to the Covid-19 lockdown - 15/05/2020
The Covid-19 lockdown has shone a light on the importance of where we live for our health and wellbeing. Living in the countryside; having a garden; living in a cohesive neighbourhood; being within walking distance of a park: these factors create very different lockdown experiences, even between neighbours living a stoneâs throw apart.
Research into neighbourhood factors and mental health is not new. However, lockdown has created a natural experiment in which peopleâs activities outside the home are largely being confined to their immediate neighbourhoods. Lockdown has thus amplified the potential detrimental â and protective â effects of neighbourhood conditions on our mental health. Investigating this relationship is not simple. It is important to take into consideration potential factors that might confound associations (e.g., prior mental health). It is also important to take into consideration how individual-level factors such as housing type might modify any associations of neighbourhood characteristics with mental health.
The current project will explore the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics during lockdown â including population density, greenspace, deprivation, and social fragmentation â and peopleâs symptoms of anxiety and depression during and after lockdown. Analyses will control for key confounders of the association. Moderation of associations according to household composition, housing type, garden access, and perceived access to nature will be explored.
B3529 - Exploring the text data provided by participants completing the COVID Q - 07/05/2020
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a questionnaire was put together and sent out to ALSPAC participants. A number of free text responses have been collected as part of that questionnaire and that data will be immensely valuable in understanding the circumstances of the participants during the pandemic. We plan to code this data in order to make the data usable in quantitative analyses and explore recurring themes in this additional data.
B3531 - Socioeconomic inequalities in mental health and cognitive trajectories - 07/05/2020
Whilst it is established that children of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) generally have worse mental health outcomes, most existing research is cross-sectional. Longitudinal studies are important for understanding when inequalities first emerge and the course they take (e.g. stable, widening or decreasing). Whilst longitudinal approaches are now commonly used to model inequalities in height and weight they have rarely been used for mental health outcomes. The aim of this project is use data from multiple EU studies to describe how inequalities in key mental health and cognitive outcomes emerge across childhood.
The aim of this project is to investigate the effect of socioeconomic position on trajectories of key mental health and cognitive outcomes across childhood. It will also serve as a âproof of conceptâ for using DataSHIELD to conduct multilevel analyses. Our specific aims are to (1) to identify the age at which inequalities emerge for different mental health outcomes, and (2) to describe whether inequalities decrease, remain stable, or widen over time.
B3528 - Transmission Distortion in the Human Genome - 07/05/2020
Transmission distortion refers to deviation from the normal 50:50 transmission of alleles from parents to offspring. Departures from this ratio can arise from a number of processes including âmeiotic driveâ where one allele is preferentially transmitted during meiosis, differences in the fertility or viability of gametes, differences in the survival of the embryo, and artefacts due to the selection of the study sample. The identification of loci which exhibit transmission distortion is not only of substantial biological interest, but is also desirable for the correct interpretation of genetic linkage and association studies.
NB. To be clear we already have the ALSPAC GWAS data required to perform the analyses listed as part of this project and so do not need to be sent any additional data. We are merely requesting permission to conduct analyses and for new staff to access the data.
B3527 - Serological testing for COVID19 - 26/05/2020
There is currently a pandemic of a new disease, COVID19, which is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2.
B3525 - Young adults gambling behaviour in lockdown - 12/05/2020
The ALSPAC Gambling study is an ongoing investigation of gambling behaviour in young people, and the antecedents and consequences of problem gambling. The young participants in ALSPAC have previously completed gambling questionnaires and the Problem Gambling Severity Index, at 17, 20- and 24-years.
This proposal will survey the ALSPAC cohort again during the COVID 19 lockdown. This is an excellent opportunity to investigate in real time the effects of COVID-19 mitigation on gambling activities at home by young adults, and to compare individualâs behaviour with what was previously reported at 24 years.
B3526 - Linking research and routine data to explore childhood asthma eczema and allergic rhinitis in the Born in Bradford birth cohort - 13/05/2020
Asthma, eczema and hay fever and are common diseases in childhood and responsible for a significant burden on families and health services. Atopic eczema, hay fever (allergic rhinitis) and atopic asthma often co-exist. Early diagnosis and appropriate management can reduce progression and severity of these diseases.
The Born in Bradford (BiB) birth cohort includes over 13,500 children born between 2007 and 2011, with around half born to women of Pakistani ethnicity. Linked primary care and hospital admission data are available for 97% of BiB children. Two sub-studies within BiB, the Allergy and Infection Study (ALL IN, n=2559) and Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy (MeDALL, n=1814), have collected detailed parental questionnaire data at age 1 and 2 years (ALL IN) and at 4 years (MeDALL). The current data collection phase for the whole BiB cohort, Growing Up, at ages 7-11 years is ongoing and also includes questions on these outcomes.
The BiB data provide an opportunity to investigate trajectories of allergic disease and asthma through childhood, by ethnic group. The linked primary care and hospital electronic health records (EHR) will contribute a wealth of data which can be analysed with machine learning methods. There is uncertainty over the validity of routine data but the extensive BiB questionnaire data at different ages provide a rare opportunity to test this.
The aims of this proposed study are:
1) to link research and routine data to explore early life and childhood longitudinal trajectories and describe clinical phenotypes of asthma, eczema and hay fever;
2) to investigate ethnic inequalities in access to care and presentation of these diseases
3) to investigate early life risk factors for these diseases
Questionnaire data are available from the BiB ALL IN sub-study at age 1 year, including questions on pets, family history of asthma/eczema/hay fever, housing conditions (damp, heating, flooring, bedding etc.), and at 2 years (as for age 1 plus eczema, hay fever, food allergy). Detailed data relevant to asthma, eczema and hay fever are available for the MeDALL sub-study participants at 4 years, including skin prick testing for 2269.
BiB receive regular extracts of primary care EHR data on diagnoses and prescriptions for BiB children, which will be linked to the BiB maternal baseline questionnaire data, including socio-demographic and household characteristics. Linked hospital admissions data are available from the Bradford Royal Infirmary. We will also compare EHR data and questionnaire data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).
Latent class analysis or other cluster methods, such as k-means clustering, will be used to identify clinical phenotypes of asthma, eczema and hay fever. Longitudinal extensions of these cluster methods will be used to describe trajectories over age.
This study will provide important data on the validity of routine primary care EHR for asthma and allergic diseases, which is relevant as EHR are increasingly used for research studies. The comparison of questionnaire and EHR data will indicate whether there are ethnic differences in access to primary care for these diseases. Identification of clinical phenotypes of asthma, eczema and hay fever will inform appropriate treatment and management and the identification of factors associated with disease progression or severity could indicate potential prevention strategies.
B3524 - The association between different modes of delivery for childbirth and sexual health a studying using ALSPAC data - 04/05/2020
Sexual health can impact upon a personâs quality of life. Being pregnant and having a child can affect a womanâs body and mind in a way that may affect their sexual health. We know that when couples have babies, their sexual activity is likely be low in the first few months after the birth. Yet what we don't know is if the mode of delivery (in other words having a vaginal or a ceasrean delivery) affects female sexual health, particularly in the medium to long-term.
B3518 - Using a machine learning approach to develop and validate a prediction model for the onset of hypomania - 12/05/2020
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a debilitating mental health condition, characterised by severe shifts in mood, that can range from disabling highs (i.e., mania/hypomania) to extreme lows (i.e., depression). Approximately 1% of the population are affected by bipolar (Pini et al., 2005), with most people experiencing the onset of mood symptoms prior to their 20s (Geoffroy et al., 2013). Despite this, little is known about the predictors to bipolar disorder and hypomania symptoms, particularly among young people. Intervening early in the development of bipolar is a top clinical priority, and one that may have the potential to limit its functional and symptomatic impact on those affected. Thus, predicting the onset of bipolar/hypomania prior to its onset, may help clinicians/researchers to develop novel, tailored preventative strategies and interventions for young people.
B3521 - HDR-UK South West Better Care Partnership - 01/05/2020
Better Care South-West Partnership is a collaboration of NHS commissioners, primary, secondary, community and mental health care providers, local authorities, and academia. They look to address real-world health problems using the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Systemwide health and social care dataset and have an ambition to use individual-level, linked routine care and administrative data to deliver a learning, Integrated Care System for the local population.
The Partnership represents a step change in using advanced analytics to deliver Better Care Loops across a care system and benefit patients and partner organisations. Its results will be scalable across the region and nationally.
Research Projects
· P-NEWS: personalised early warning scores for preventing unplanned critical care admission
· Precision antimicrobial prescribing: safeguarding patient outcomes and preserving future efficacy
· Using operation research methods to improve flow between acute and social care: modelling the responsiveness of system-level expenditure to changes in social care capacity
· Improving hospital efficiency by forecasting demand for hospital beds
· Underpinning infrastructure to the BNSSG Systemwide dataset
B3522 - The Healthier Together Population Data Platform - 01/05/2020
Health and care services are increasingly planned and provided using patient data shared securely across multiple health-care settings. However, we know that peopleâs health is influenced by a wide range of things, including social, cultural, and economic factors. Unfortunately, we donât currently have data resources that link information about these things to improve service planning, individual care and research.
Our project will fund the information technology and people to bring together information from multiple sources, including, local councils and other services such as the police, as well as the detailed data collected as part of research studies. We will do this using secure technologies and protecting patientsâ confidentiality.
By combining and analysing data, we will be able to work with public services to help identify people at higher risk of a condition or disease, and deliver better, more joined up care that is both more effective and offers better value.
B3523 - Fine-mapping of vascular reactivity loci using human artery multi-omics analyses - 01/05/2020
Vascular diseases such as hypertension, migraine, and atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries) involve changes in vascular cell function with reduced ability to contract and relax in response to different stresses. This results in chronic alterations in artery blood flow and maladaptive structural changes to the vascular wall leading to injury, tissue damage, and increased risk for life-threatening diseases such as stroke and heart attacks. Given that naturally occurring genetic variation contributes to changes in vascular function along with environmental risk from early life stages, it is now critical to evaluate the effects of these genetic associations at this stage using more systematic approaches. We plan to integrate these vascular phenotype data with high resolution molecular data to better understand how these genetic risk factors impact vascular disease risk at an early age.
B3519 - The impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on family interactions and infant behaviours - 30/04/2020
The impact of the public health measures adopted to control the COVID-19 pandemic on young infants and family interactions is unknown. New information is vital to inform future policies and recovery for families and aid infant development. Infants may show more unsettled and
restless behaviours even if they are not aware of the situation, however, they may also show positive behaviours benefiting from more parental attention if parents are home. Understanding of both is important to manage further transitions in an ever changing home environment. Furthermore , young children will have been separated from wider family and friends. Online chats may provide a helpful substitute to retain attachments, but how young infants respond to such interactions is unknown . Using our existing methods to code indepeth parent and infant verbal and non-verbal behaviours we can compare parent and infant behaviours in interactions at this time to already collected and coded interactions of ALSPAC-G2 families pre-pandemic. We can also compare infant behaviours towards parents in the same room and a mimicked online interaction (where the one parent joins a chat from another room).
B3517 - Longitudinal prevalence of covid-19 symptoms in the ALSPAC cohorts - 28/04/2020
Infection by the sars-cov-2 virus (coronavirus) causes a range of flu-like symptoms which can be mild or serious. To date, testing for coronavirus in the Bristol area has focussed on people with severe symptoms. This means that existing test results do not give a full picture of how many people in the Bristol area have already had coronavirus infection.
Rather than using tests, it may be possible to track the spread of coronavirus over time by looking at how many people are experiencing flu-like symptoms. This analysis plans to divide flu-like symptoms into two groups (those which are specific to coronavirus and those which are common in many types of cold or flu) and compare how the rate of these has changed between October 2019 and June 2020. This may give more information about the posible true rate of mild infection in the Bristol area, as well as how the number of people with coronavirus is changing over time.