Pub Date : 2026-01-29eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.3045
Hollie Henderson, Sally Bridges, Maria Bryant, Kayley Ciesla, Kate Pickett
Introduction: Priority setting with patients, public and professionals is essential for research utilising routinely collected data, as this ensures data are being used in the public interest. However, it is challenging to identify research priorities that are relevant to a wide range of local stakeholders and can be addressed with routinely collected data.
Objectives: To describe and present the results of a priority setting exercise aiming to identify research priorities for Born in Bradford for All (BiB4All), a routine data linkage cohort of mothers and babies born in Bradford, a city in the north of England.
Methods: We developed a two-hour online workshop to engage a range of stakeholders across Bradford, including parents, early years practitioners, commissioners, and service providers. The workshop method combined elements of existing priority setting approaches to ensure priorities were identified in an inclusive, timely and deliberative way, and supported stakeholders to develop their understanding of using linked routine data for research.
Results: The workshop identified seventeen important and urgent research priorities around child and maternal health for research with locally linked routine data. Key topic areas included maternal and infant mental health, the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternal and child health outcomes, inequalities in access to services, and infant feeding experiences.
Conclusions: The identified research priorities have been shared widely amongst interested networks and have shaped the BiB4All research agenda, demonstrating the feasibility of the stakeholder engagement method. They also have important implications for policy and practice. For policy, they provide an understanding of the key issues faced by local communities, which can steer policy priorities and investment in evidence generation. For practice, involvement in the workshop has generated a greater understanding of how local service data can be used for research and to inform improvements to service delivery.
{"title":"Identifying local priorities for research with linked routine data: an online workshop method.","authors":"Hollie Henderson, Sally Bridges, Maria Bryant, Kayley Ciesla, Kate Pickett","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.3045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.3045","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Priority setting with patients, public and professionals is essential for research utilising routinely collected data, as this ensures data are being used in the public interest. However, it is challenging to identify research priorities that are relevant to a wide range of local stakeholders and can be addressed with routinely collected data.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To describe and present the results of a priority setting exercise aiming to identify research priorities for Born in Bradford for All (BiB4All), a routine data linkage cohort of mothers and babies born in Bradford, a city in the north of England.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We developed a two-hour online workshop to engage a range of stakeholders across Bradford, including parents, early years practitioners, commissioners, and service providers. The workshop method combined elements of existing priority setting approaches to ensure priorities were identified in an inclusive, timely and deliberative way, and supported stakeholders to develop their understanding of using linked routine data for research.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The workshop identified seventeen important and urgent research priorities around child and maternal health for research with locally linked routine data. Key topic areas included maternal and infant mental health, the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternal and child health outcomes, inequalities in access to services, and infant feeding experiences.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The identified research priorities have been shared widely amongst interested networks and have shaped the BiB4All research agenda, demonstrating the feasibility of the stakeholder engagement method. They also have important implications for policy and practice. For policy, they provide an understanding of the key issues faced by local communities, which can steer policy priorities and investment in evidence generation. For practice, involvement in the workshop has generated a greater understanding of how local service data can be used for research and to inform improvements to service delivery.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"11 1","pages":"3045"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12880541/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146143891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15eCollection Date: 2023-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v8i6.3006
Tanja Mueller, Lynne Jarvis, Victoria Stark, Morven Millar, Amy Hynd, Elaine Pauline, Amanj Kurdi, Laura Stobo, Stuart McTaggart, Marion Bennie
Introduction: Prescribing data has been collected electronically in Scotland for many years; however, data are collated in individual, non-overlapping datasets based on the origin of the prescription (e.g., primary or secondary care). The vision was to create a unified view of all prescribing data to provide a longitudinal dataset of medicines use for patients treated by the National Health Services (NHS) Scotland, irrespective of where or how that care was provided.
Methods: The Scottish Combined Medicines Dataset (SCoMeD) is, in essence, a data virtualisation tool collating information from three previously available prescribing datasets: the Prescribing Information System (PIS); the Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) national dataset; and the Homecare Medicines (HCM) dataset. This allows the creation of study cohorts (patient groups of interest) that meet specified criteria across all prescribing settings and facilitates the retrieval of the prescribing history for individuals pre-identified from other datasets. Records contain a unique patient identifier (Community Health Index number) which is used to identify patients for inclusion in the dataset and also enables linkage to other routinely collected data, including hospital admission episodes and death records.
Results: SCoMeD contains details on the patient (age, sex, geographical information) and on the medication prescribed. Medication-related information includes what was received and when; strength and dose information are also available. The earliest date of data availability depends on the source (PIS, 01/2010; HEPMA, 07/2022; HCM, 01/2019). Data is held by Public Health Scotland.
Conclusion: SCoMeD facilitates a range of different studies, including cross-sectional/point-prevalence studies and drug utilisation studies as well as longitudinal studies, e.g., cohort and case-control studies. With the possibility to link to other relevant datasets, additional areas of interest may include health policy evaluations and health economics studies. Access to data is subject to approval; researchers need to contact the electronic Data Research and Innovation Service in the first instance.
{"title":"Data resource profile: the Scottish Combined Medicines Dataset (SCoMeD).","authors":"Tanja Mueller, Lynne Jarvis, Victoria Stark, Morven Millar, Amy Hynd, Elaine Pauline, Amanj Kurdi, Laura Stobo, Stuart McTaggart, Marion Bennie","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v8i6.3006","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v8i6.3006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Prescribing data has been collected electronically in Scotland for many years; however, data are collated in individual, non-overlapping datasets based on the origin of the prescription (e.g., primary or secondary care). The vision was to create a unified view of all prescribing data to provide a longitudinal dataset of medicines use for patients treated by the National Health Services (NHS) Scotland, irrespective of where or how that care was provided.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The Scottish Combined Medicines Dataset (SCoMeD) is, in essence, a data virtualisation tool collating information from three previously available prescribing datasets: the Prescribing Information System (PIS); the Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) national dataset; and the Homecare Medicines (HCM) dataset. This allows the creation of study cohorts (patient groups of interest) that meet specified criteria across all prescribing settings and facilitates the retrieval of the prescribing history for individuals pre-identified from other datasets. Records contain a unique patient identifier (Community Health Index number) which is used to identify patients for inclusion in the dataset and also enables linkage to other routinely collected data, including hospital admission episodes and death records.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>SCoMeD contains details on the patient (age, sex, geographical information) and on the medication prescribed. Medication-related information includes what was received and when; strength and dose information are also available. The earliest date of data availability depends on the source (PIS, 01/2010; HEPMA, 07/2022; HCM, 01/2019). Data is held by Public Health Scotland.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>SCoMeD facilitates a range of different studies, including cross-sectional/point-prevalence studies and drug utilisation studies as well as longitudinal studies, e.g., cohort and case-control studies. With the possibility to link to other relevant datasets, additional areas of interest may include health policy evaluations and health economics studies. Access to data is subject to approval; researchers need to contact the electronic Data Research and Innovation Service in the first instance.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"8 6","pages":"3006"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12809194/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.2948
Hywel T Evans, Ian W Farr, Grace A Bailey, Gareth I Davies, Josh Dixon, Sam Fallick, Joanne Maimaris, Columbus Ohaeri, Olabambo Oluwasuji, Ryan Phillips, Matthew Skermer, Delyth James, Josie Smith
Background: Household substance misuse (SM) is associated with child deprivation and worse physical and mental health. This study utilised linked healthcare, justice, and children's social care data in Wales for the first time, to create a reusable cohort of households that experience substance misuse (SMHH).
Methods: Using the SAIL Databank, a population-scale retrospective electronic cohort (e-cohort) was created to perform a cross-sectional analysis of SM-related health and criminal justice events during 2011-2019 for adults and children in SMHH, which were compared with the rest of the population using period prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Other variables included demographics, children's social care, healthcare, and SM-related criminal court cases.
Results: There were 776,366 children and 1,032,088 adults, where 83,558 children (11%) lived in SMHH, and 48,398 (5%) of adults who lived with a child had a SM event. Children in SMHH had a 133% higher prevalence of referral to SM treatment (PR = 2.33, CI: 2.23-2.43), and a SM-related criminal case was 42% more prevalent (PR = 1.42, CI: 1.30-1.55) during the period. Notably, the prevalence of SMHH children receiving care and support was 300% higher (PR = 4.00, CI: 3.92-4.08), and self-harm was 78% more prevalent (PR = 1.78, CI: 1.71-1.86).
Conclusion: SMHH children experience significant disparities, including higher deprivation, adverse birth outcomes, mental health issues, social care involvement, and SM-related criminal justice prosecutions. Evidence-based interventions and policy are needed to support adults and children in SMHH to mitigate the intergenerational impact.
{"title":"The intergenerational health, social care, and justice system contacts associated with household substance misuse in Wales.","authors":"Hywel T Evans, Ian W Farr, Grace A Bailey, Gareth I Davies, Josh Dixon, Sam Fallick, Joanne Maimaris, Columbus Ohaeri, Olabambo Oluwasuji, Ryan Phillips, Matthew Skermer, Delyth James, Josie Smith","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.2948","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v11i1.2948","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Household substance misuse (SM) is associated with child deprivation and worse physical and mental health. This study utilised linked healthcare, justice, and children's social care data in Wales for the first time, to create a reusable cohort of households that experience substance misuse (SMHH).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using the SAIL Databank, a population-scale retrospective electronic cohort (e-cohort) was created to perform a cross-sectional analysis of SM-related health and criminal justice events during 2011-2019 for adults and children in SMHH, which were compared with the rest of the population using period prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Other variables included demographics, children's social care, healthcare, and SM-related criminal court cases.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There were 776,366 children and 1,032,088 adults, where 83,558 children (11%) lived in SMHH, and 48,398 (5%) of adults who lived with a child had a SM event. Children in SMHH had a 133% higher prevalence of referral to SM treatment (PR = 2.33, CI: 2.23-2.43), and a SM-related criminal case was 42% more prevalent (PR = 1.42, CI: 1.30-1.55) during the period. Notably, the prevalence of SMHH children receiving care and support was 300% higher (PR = 4.00, CI: 3.92-4.08), and self-harm was 78% more prevalent (PR = 1.78, CI: 1.71-1.86).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>SMHH children experience significant disparities, including higher deprivation, adverse birth outcomes, mental health issues, social care involvement, and SM-related criminal justice prosecutions. Evidence-based interventions and policy are needed to support adults and children in SMHH to mitigate the intergenerational impact.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"11 1","pages":"2948"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12820747/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146030943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-03eCollection Date: 2023-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v8i3.3138
Sarah McKenna, Siobhan Murphy, Dermot O'Reilly, Lisa Bunting, Aideen Maguire
Introduction: Children in contact with the children's social care (CSC) system are a vulnerable group likely to have experienced one or multiple forms of childhood adversity. Understanding the characteristics and social care pathways of these children and their health and social outcomes across the life course is important for informing policy and practice. The Social Services Client Administration and Retrieval Environment (SOSCARE) dataset holds routinely collected CSC data in Northern Ireland (NI). The aim of this data resource profile is to provide an overview of the three key modules in the SOSCARE dataset to act as a guide for researchers.
Methods: This paper reports selected data contained in the SOSCARE data modules relating to Children in Need, Child Protection Registrations and Children in Care between 1995 and 2015. Information on how to access the data and the strengths and limitations are discussed.
Results: The SOSCARE dataset is available to approved researchers via the Health and Social Care Honest Broker Service (HSC HBS) in NI and allows researchers to examine population-level interactions with key statutory thresholds of CSC. Between 1st January 1995 and 31st December 2015, the Children in Need module contains data for 148,862 unique children, and the Child Protection Registration and Children in Care modules contain data for 20,355 and 12,335 children respectively. While there are several methodological limitations, the data is a unique and rich resource to examine prevalence and patterns of CSC activity in NI. There is great potential for linkage to other health and administrative datasets to examine predictors of social care involvement and a range of health and social outcomes in childhood and adulthood.
Conclusion: The SOSCARE data provides detailed case level information on all children in contact with CSC in NI. Research using this data can make an important contribution to evidence-informed policy and practice.
{"title":"Data Resource Profile: The Social Services Client Administration and Retrieval Environment (SOSCARE) administrative dataset for children's social care in Northern Ireland.","authors":"Sarah McKenna, Siobhan Murphy, Dermot O'Reilly, Lisa Bunting, Aideen Maguire","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v8i3.3138","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v8i3.3138","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Children in contact with the children's social care (CSC) system are a vulnerable group likely to have experienced one or multiple forms of childhood adversity. Understanding the characteristics and social care pathways of these children and their health and social outcomes across the life course is important for informing policy and practice. The Social Services Client Administration and Retrieval Environment (SOSCARE) dataset holds routinely collected CSC data in Northern Ireland (NI). The aim of this data resource profile is to provide an overview of the three key modules in the SOSCARE dataset to act as a guide for researchers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This paper reports selected data contained in the SOSCARE data modules relating to Children in Need, Child Protection Registrations and Children in Care between 1995 and 2015. Information on how to access the data and the strengths and limitations are discussed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The SOSCARE dataset is available to approved researchers via the Health and Social Care Honest Broker Service (HSC HBS) in NI and allows researchers to examine population-level interactions with key statutory thresholds of CSC. Between 1<sup>st</sup> January 1995 and 31<sup>st</sup> December 2015, the Children in Need module contains data for 148,862 unique children, and the Child Protection Registration and Children in Care modules contain data for 20,355 and 12,335 children respectively. While there are several methodological limitations, the data is a unique and rich resource to examine prevalence and patterns of CSC activity in NI. There is great potential for linkage to other health and administrative datasets to examine predictors of social care involvement and a range of health and social outcomes in childhood and adulthood.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The SOSCARE data provides detailed case level information on all children in contact with CSC in NI. Research using this data can make an important contribution to evidence-informed policy and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"8 3","pages":"3138"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12805869/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Public engagement is an important mechanism for ensuring that the voices of the public are integrated into study design and data use. The commissioning of a new UK-wide birth cohort study by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study (ELC-FS), necessitated renewed dialogue with the public about the acceptability of conducting a large-scale study of this kind. The ELC-FS recruited several thousand children in their first year of life, using an administrative data sampling frame, an 'opt-out' recruitment approach, and embedded linkages to education, health and social care administrative data. The study faced many complexities and challenges to achieve this: the sampling frame had not been used for this purpose before, required negotiation with different data holders in the four UK nations, and the study needed to ensure transparency around how participants' administrative and survey data would be used. Conducting public engagement projects with parents of young children prior to the study's fieldwork was essential to understanding more about the public acceptability of data use in ELC-FS. Evidence from these projects was used to support negotiations with data holders, as well as in guiding best practice for informing participants about their data use and data linkage. This paper summarises the evidence from these public engagement projects relating to data transparency and enacting participant choice and control of the use of their data in the study. We describe how this evidence was implemented in three key study design areas: sampling and recruitment, the collection and use of survey data, and seeking participant consent to link administrative records to individual-level survey data. We also present evidence from the study's fieldwork about participants' acceptability of the survey design and transparency around data use, from recruitment to data collection and processing.
{"title":"Integrating public engagement to promote transparent data use in a new UK-wide birth cohort.","authors":"Alyce Raybould, Karen Dennison, Orla McBride, Erica Wong, Lisa Calderwood, Pasco Fearon, Alissa Goodman","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i2.2965","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i2.2965","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public engagement is an important mechanism for ensuring that the voices of the public are integrated into study design and data use. The commissioning of a new UK-wide birth cohort study by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study (ELC-FS), necessitated renewed dialogue with the public about the acceptability of conducting a large-scale study of this kind. The ELC-FS recruited several thousand children in their first year of life, using an administrative data sampling frame, an 'opt-out' recruitment approach, and embedded linkages to education, health and social care administrative data. The study faced many complexities and challenges to achieve this: the sampling frame had not been used for this purpose before, required negotiation with different data holders in the four UK nations, and the study needed to ensure transparency around how participants' administrative and survey data would be used. Conducting public engagement projects with parents of young children prior to the study's fieldwork was essential to understanding more about the public acceptability of data use in ELC-FS. Evidence from these projects was used to support negotiations with data holders, as well as in guiding best practice for informing participants about their data use and data linkage. This paper summarises the evidence from these public engagement projects relating to data transparency and enacting participant choice and control of the use of their data in the study. We describe how this evidence was implemented in three key study design areas: sampling and recruitment, the collection and use of survey data, and seeking participant consent to link administrative records to individual-level survey data. We also present evidence from the study's fieldwork about participants' acceptability of the survey design and transparency around data use, from recruitment to data collection and processing.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 2","pages":"2965"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12805980/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Lifestyle choices encompassing dietary habits, physical activity levels, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use have been consistently shown to significantly impact individual health outcomes and overall well-being.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study proposes a novel composite index to measure the adoption of healthy lifestyles among the Italian population aged 18 years and over.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The Healthy Lifestyle Composite Index (HLCI) is constructed by aggregating four key dimensions: diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use. The dimensions are structured as ordinal variables derived from the comprehensive Aspects of Daily Life (AVQ) multipurpose household survey conducted annually by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). A formative approach is employed, involving defining the dimensions, determining weights through the Analytic Hierarchy Process based on expert evaluations, and specifying an aggregation procedure using a weighted Borda rule.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The resulting HLCI provides a score from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating healthier lifestyles. Analysis of the HLCI and its dimensions using the 2022 AVQ data (n=32,600) reveals an average score of 61.77, with substantial variation across demographic groups. Descriptive analysis of the HLCI revealed significantly higher scores for females compared to males, driven by better performance in the alcohol and tobacco consumption dimensions. An inverted U-shaped trend emerged for age, with the youngest (18-19 years) and oldest (75+) groups exhibiting higher HLCI values. Educational level was positively associated with HLCI, with graduates scoring highest, excelling in physical activity. Geographically, the North-East region had the highest HLCI. Quantile regression on the first decile highlighted at-risk profiles with extremely low HLCI values, such as 35-44-year-old separated/divorced males with middle school education residing in South Italy.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Constructed using reliable data from an annually updated national survey, the HLCI allows for monitoring lifestyle dynamics across different demographic groups and geographic regions. The findings highlight specific segments of the population that may benefit from targeted interventions promoting a healthier lifestyle.</p><p><strong>5 bullet points: </strong>Proposal of a new Healthy Lifestyle Composite Index (HLCI) to measure adoption of healthy lifestyles in the Italian population.HLCI aggregates four dimensions: diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use, using data from an annual national survey.HLCI employs a formative approach with expert-weighted dimensions and a weighted Borda aggregation rule to calculate the 0-100 score.Analysis of 2022 survey data shows average HLCI of 61.77 with variations across demographics like age, marital status, and educational level.Monitoring heal
{"title":"Construction of a healthy lifestyle index using Italian national survey data.","authors":"Manuela Scioni, Chiara Baldan, Alessia Ghirardo, Giovanna Boccuzzo","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v01i3.2977","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v01i3.2977","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Lifestyle choices encompassing dietary habits, physical activity levels, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use have been consistently shown to significantly impact individual health outcomes and overall well-being.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study proposes a novel composite index to measure the adoption of healthy lifestyles among the Italian population aged 18 years and over.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The Healthy Lifestyle Composite Index (HLCI) is constructed by aggregating four key dimensions: diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use. The dimensions are structured as ordinal variables derived from the comprehensive Aspects of Daily Life (AVQ) multipurpose household survey conducted annually by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). A formative approach is employed, involving defining the dimensions, determining weights through the Analytic Hierarchy Process based on expert evaluations, and specifying an aggregation procedure using a weighted Borda rule.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The resulting HLCI provides a score from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating healthier lifestyles. Analysis of the HLCI and its dimensions using the 2022 AVQ data (n=32,600) reveals an average score of 61.77, with substantial variation across demographic groups. Descriptive analysis of the HLCI revealed significantly higher scores for females compared to males, driven by better performance in the alcohol and tobacco consumption dimensions. An inverted U-shaped trend emerged for age, with the youngest (18-19 years) and oldest (75+) groups exhibiting higher HLCI values. Educational level was positively associated with HLCI, with graduates scoring highest, excelling in physical activity. Geographically, the North-East region had the highest HLCI. Quantile regression on the first decile highlighted at-risk profiles with extremely low HLCI values, such as 35-44-year-old separated/divorced males with middle school education residing in South Italy.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Constructed using reliable data from an annually updated national survey, the HLCI allows for monitoring lifestyle dynamics across different demographic groups and geographic regions. The findings highlight specific segments of the population that may benefit from targeted interventions promoting a healthier lifestyle.</p><p><strong>5 bullet points: </strong>Proposal of a new Healthy Lifestyle Composite Index (HLCI) to measure adoption of healthy lifestyles in the Italian population.HLCI aggregates four dimensions: diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use, using data from an annual national survey.HLCI employs a formative approach with expert-weighted dimensions and a weighted Borda aggregation rule to calculate the 0-100 score.Analysis of 2022 survey data shows average HLCI of 61.77 with variations across demographics like age, marital status, and educational level.Monitoring heal","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 3","pages":"2977"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12668253/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145662167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2958
Marta Wilk, Gill Harper, Nicola Firman, Chris Dibben, Rich Fry, Carol Dezateux
Introduction: Up-to-date, high-quality estimates of population and households are essential for planning the provision of local and central infrastructure.
Objectives: We aimed to derive estimates of population size, and household numbers and size on Census date (21/03/2021) using north-east London primary care Electronic Health Records (EHR) and calculate levels of their agreement with the publicly available official Census 2021 estimates to assess if health data have the potential to be used to create reliable statistics.
Methods: We compared EHR and Census population estimates by sex, age, local authority, and IMD quintile, and EHR and Census household estimates by number, size, and local authority. We estimated 95% Limits of Agreement between EHR and Census household and population estimates using the Bland and Altman method. In sensitivity analyses, we excluded people with no General Practice encounter within 12 months and compared the adjusted population's size to Census estimate.We compared EHR and administrative Statistical Population Dataset (SPD) to Census population estimates by sex and age, and EHR and Admin-based Occupied Address Dataset (ABOAD) to Census household estimates by local authority and household size.
Results: EHR population estimate was 2,130,965, i.e. 7.1% higher than Census of 1,990,087. EHR household estimate was 658,264, i.e. 9.1% lower than Census of 724,045. The estimate of population with recent GP encounter was 11.6% lower than the Census estimate.Compared to Census, both SPD and EHR overcounted population of males (10.7%, 7.9% respectively) and females (3.6%, 2.7% respectively). Both ABOAD and EHR had undercounted households compared to Census (-7.3%; -9.1% respectively).
Conclusions: Reliable, up-to-date populations and households estimates can be derived from health records. High residential mobility increases the complexity of deriving these estimates. Excluding people without GP encounters does not improve agreement with Census. Future work will focus on comparing Census and EHR estimates using individual-level data.
{"title":"Estimating households and populations from primary care electronic health records: comparison with Office for National Statistics Census 2021 aggregated estimates.","authors":"Marta Wilk, Gill Harper, Nicola Firman, Chris Dibben, Rich Fry, Carol Dezateux","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2958","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2958","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Up-to-date, high-quality estimates of population and households are essential for planning the provision of local and central infrastructure.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We aimed to derive estimates of population size, and household numbers and size on Census date (21/03/2021) using north-east London primary care Electronic Health Records (EHR) and calculate levels of their agreement with the publicly available official Census 2021 estimates to assess if health data have the potential to be used to create reliable statistics.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We compared EHR and Census population estimates by sex, age, local authority, and IMD quintile, and EHR and Census household estimates by number, size, and local authority. We estimated 95% Limits of Agreement between EHR and Census household and population estimates using the Bland and Altman method. In sensitivity analyses, we excluded people with no General Practice encounter within 12 months and compared the adjusted population's size to Census estimate.We compared EHR and administrative Statistical Population Dataset (SPD) to Census population estimates by sex and age, and EHR and Admin-based Occupied Address Dataset (ABOAD) to Census household estimates by local authority and household size.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>EHR population estimate was 2,130,965, i.e. 7.1% higher than Census of 1,990,087. EHR household estimate was 658,264, i.e. 9.1% lower than Census of 724,045. The estimate of population with recent GP encounter was 11.6% lower than the Census estimate.Compared to Census, both SPD and EHR overcounted population of males (10.7%, 7.9% respectively) and females (3.6%, 2.7% respectively). Both ABOAD and EHR had undercounted households compared to Census (-7.3%; -9.1% respectively).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Reliable, up-to-date populations and households estimates can be derived from health records. High residential mobility increases the complexity of deriving these estimates. Excluding people without GP encounters does not improve agreement with Census. Future work will focus on comparing Census and EHR estimates using individual-level data.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 1","pages":"2958"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12668252/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145662017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-19eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i3.2974
Mirjam Allik, Elzo Pereira Pinto-Júnior, Dandara Ramos, Andrêa J F Ferreira, Flavia Jose Alves, Camila Teixeira, Marilyn Agranonik, Renzo Flores-Ortiz, Poliana Rebouças, Rita de Cássia Ribeiro-Silva, Mauro Sanchez, Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, Mauricio L Barreto, Alastair H Leyland, Maria Yury Ichihara, Ruth Dundas
Introduction: Monitoring and addressing health inequalities is important. However, socioeconomic variables are usually unavailable within health datasets. Area deprivation measures provide access to open-source reliable socioeconomic data within low/middle-income countries and can contribute to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and assessing the growing burden of health inequalities.
Objective: To create a small-area deprivation measure for the whole of Brazil - the Brazilian Deprivation Index (Índice Brasileiro de Privação - IBP).
Methods: Using Census Sector data (mean population size=615) from the most recently available Brazilian Demographic Census (2010), variables measuring literacy, household income and housing conditions were standardised using z-scores and summed into a single measure. The IBP was validated using regional small-area measures of vulnerability: Belo Horizonte's Health Vulnerability Index (IVS) and São Paulo's Social Vulnerability Index (IPVS). Mortality data from Minas Gerais were used to estimate age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) by ill-defined causes across IBP deprivation quintiles.
Results: The IBP was created for 303,218 (97.8%) census sectors (99.7% population). Substantial regional variation in deprivation was found using the IBP measure, with higher deprivation in rural than urban areas. The IBP was correlated with the other indicators used for validation: the IVS (r = 0.96) and the IPVS (r = 0.68). We found gradients across the ill-defined causes ASMR, in Minas Gerais mortality was 2.6 higher in the most deprived quintile of IBP, compared with the least deprived. Main challenges in creating a deprivation measure for LMICs and possible solutions are demonstrated.
Conclusion: A small area deprivation index was created for Brazil, a large and highly diverse middle-income country. The IBP improves our understanding and monitoring of inequalities, serving as a valuable tool for informing targeted public policies. Although the index is based on Brazil's specific context, the challenges faced, and the strategies implemented to tackle them are relevant for other low- and middle-income countries aiming to develop similar tools.
导言:监测和处理卫生不平等现象很重要。然而,卫生数据集中通常没有社会经济变量。地区剥夺措施提供了获取低收入/中等收入国家内可靠的开源社会经济数据的途径,并有助于监测可持续发展目标和评估日益严重的卫生不平等负担。目的:建立一个适用于整个巴西的小区域贫困指标——巴西贫困指数(Índice Brasileiro de priva o - IBP)。方法:使用最近可获得的巴西人口普查(2010年)的人口普查部门数据(平均人口规模=615),使用z分数对衡量识字率、家庭收入和住房条件的变量进行标准化,并将其汇总为单一测量。IBP采用区域性小区域脆弱性指标进行验证:贝洛奥里藏特健康脆弱性指数(IVS)和圣保罗社会脆弱性指数(IPVS)。来自米纳斯吉拉斯州的死亡率数据被用于估计IBP剥夺五分位数中不明确原因的年龄标准化死亡率(ASMR)。结果:建立IBP的人口普查部门为303218个(97.8%),占人口的99.7%。使用IBP测量发现,贫困程度在地区间存在显著差异,农村地区的贫困程度高于城市地区。IBP与其他用于验证的指标:IVS (r = 0.96)和IPVS (r = 0.68)相关。我们发现,在米纳斯吉拉斯州,IBP最贫困五分之一的死亡率比最贫困五分之一的死亡率高2.6。为低收入和中等收入国家制定剥夺措施的主要挑战和可能的解决办法。结论:巴西是一个面积大、多样性高的中等收入国家,建立了一个小面积剥夺指数。IBP提高了我们对不平等现象的理解和监测,是为有针对性的公共政策提供信息的宝贵工具。尽管该指数是基于巴西的具体情况制定的,但巴西面临的挑战以及为应对这些挑战而实施的战略,对其他旨在开发类似工具的低收入和中等收入国家具有重要意义。
{"title":"A small area deprivation index for monitoring and evaluating health inequalities in a diverse, low and middle income country: the Índice Brasileiro de Privação (IBP).","authors":"Mirjam Allik, Elzo Pereira Pinto-Júnior, Dandara Ramos, Andrêa J F Ferreira, Flavia Jose Alves, Camila Teixeira, Marilyn Agranonik, Renzo Flores-Ortiz, Poliana Rebouças, Rita de Cássia Ribeiro-Silva, Mauro Sanchez, Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, Mauricio L Barreto, Alastair H Leyland, Maria Yury Ichihara, Ruth Dundas","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i3.2974","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i3.2974","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Monitoring and addressing health inequalities is important. However, socioeconomic variables are usually unavailable within health datasets. Area deprivation measures provide access to open-source reliable socioeconomic data within low/middle-income countries and can contribute to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and assessing the growing burden of health inequalities.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To create a small-area deprivation measure for the whole of Brazil - the Brazilian Deprivation Index (Índice Brasileiro de Privação - IBP).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using Census Sector data (mean population size=615) from the most recently available Brazilian Demographic Census (2010), variables measuring literacy, household income and housing conditions were standardised using z-scores and summed into a single measure. The IBP was validated using regional small-area measures of vulnerability: Belo Horizonte's Health Vulnerability Index (IVS) and São Paulo's Social Vulnerability Index (IPVS). Mortality data from Minas Gerais were used to estimate age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) by ill-defined causes across IBP deprivation quintiles.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The IBP was created for 303,218 (97.8%) census sectors (99.7% population). Substantial regional variation in deprivation was found using the IBP measure, with higher deprivation in rural than urban areas. The IBP was correlated with the other indicators used for validation: the IVS (r = 0.96) and the IPVS (r = 0.68). We found gradients across the ill-defined causes ASMR, in Minas Gerais mortality was 2.6 higher in the most deprived quintile of IBP, compared with the least deprived. Main challenges in creating a deprivation measure for LMICs and possible solutions are demonstrated.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>A small area deprivation index was created for Brazil, a large and highly diverse middle-income country. The IBP improves our understanding and monitoring of inequalities, serving as a valuable tool for informing targeted public policies. Although the index is based on Brazil's specific context, the challenges faced, and the strategies implemented to tackle them are relevant for other low- and middle-income countries aiming to develop similar tools.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 3","pages":"2974"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12629185/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145565608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-17eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2984
Leslie L Roos, Gilles Detillieux, Gillian Fransoo
Introduction: Childhood exposure to and duration of poverty can affect several individual characteristics related to intellectual development.
Objectives: This paper examines the implications of movement in and out of childhood poverty using a unique linkable database from the Canadian province of Manitoba. Differences in measurement of poverty and intellectual development are explored.
Methods: Almost 90,000 children were followed using two definitions of poverty - neighborhood and household poverty. The large database permitted exploring the role of another variable - maternal mental health.
Results: The association of household poverty with poorer intellectual outcomes has been shown to be stronger than the association of neighborhood poverty with such outcomes. This was true using various outcome measures appropriate across childhood (from age 5 to age 17). Comparisons with the role of maternal mental health were made and further analyses suggested.
Conclusion: The richness of the data has facilitated the study of childhood intellectual development. Household poverty appears to play an important role; neighborhood poverty and maternal mental health also seem to influence such development, but less strongly.
{"title":"Poverty and intellectual development in childhood.","authors":"Leslie L Roos, Gilles Detillieux, Gillian Fransoo","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2984","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2984","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Childhood exposure to and duration of poverty can affect several individual characteristics related to intellectual development.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This paper examines the implications of movement in and out of childhood poverty using a unique linkable database from the Canadian province of Manitoba. Differences in measurement of poverty and intellectual development are explored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Almost 90,000 children were followed using two definitions of poverty - neighborhood and household poverty. The large database permitted exploring the role of another variable - maternal mental health.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The association of household poverty with poorer intellectual outcomes has been shown to be stronger than the association of neighborhood poverty with such outcomes. This was true using various outcome measures appropriate across childhood (from age 5 to age 17). Comparisons with the role of maternal mental health were made and further analyses suggested.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The richness of the data has facilitated the study of childhood intellectual development. Household poverty appears to play an important role; neighborhood poverty and maternal mental health also seem to influence such development, but less strongly.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 1","pages":"2984"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12625802/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145557715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-30eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2968
Isobel Sharpe, Amreen Babujee, George Foussias, Simone N Vigod, Paul Kurdyak
Introduction: Psychotic disorders are associated with high levels of disability and poor clinical outcomes but little is known about the regional incidence of psychosis in Ontario.
Objective: This study aimed to understand regional incidence variation and demographic and regional characteristics of individuals who may be suitable for receiving early psychosis intervention (EPI) services, as well as evaluate post-diagnosis healthcare utilisation.
Methods: A population-based retrospective cohort study captured incident affective and non-affective psychosis cases among Ontario, Canada residents aged 12-50 from 2017-2021. The sociodemographic characteristics of the cohort were described, including Ontario Health region of residence. Incident cases were followed for 6-months post-diagnosis to capture health service utilisation. Logistic regression was used to model post-diagnosis hospitalisations and Poisson regression to model outpatient psychiatrist visits.
Results: The cohort contained 44,188 individuals (41,257 non-affective psychosis; 3,058 affective psychosis). We observed substantial regional variation in incidence rates, which were higher in the North Western region for non-affective psychosis (167.44/100,000) and North Eastern region for affective psychosis (14.23/100,000) compared to the provincial average (92.24; 6.84/100,000, respectively). Compared to the Toronto region, post-diagnosis hospitalisations were significantly higher in the North East (non-affective psychosis aOR 1.14, 95%CI 1.01-1.30; affective psychosis aOR 1.69, 95%CI 1.13-2.54). Among those with non-affective psychosis, outpatient psychiatrist visits were significantly lower in all regions compared to Toronto (e.g., East aRR 0.61, 95%CI 0.60-0.62; North West aRR 0.34, 95%CI 0.32-0.36).
Conclusions: There is considerable regional variation in incident psychosis and inverse relationships between hospitalisations and outpatient care. To successfully plan for future EPI programs in Ontario, it is essential to understand regional needs using a systematic, population-based approach.
{"title":"Regional and sociodemographic variation of incident first-episode psychosis in Ontario, Canada.","authors":"Isobel Sharpe, Amreen Babujee, George Foussias, Simone N Vigod, Paul Kurdyak","doi":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2968","DOIUrl":"10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2968","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Psychotic disorders are associated with high levels of disability and poor clinical outcomes but little is known about the regional incidence of psychosis in Ontario.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to understand regional incidence variation and demographic and regional characteristics of individuals who may be suitable for receiving early psychosis intervention (EPI) services, as well as evaluate post-diagnosis healthcare utilisation.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A population-based retrospective cohort study captured incident affective and non-affective psychosis cases among Ontario, Canada residents aged 12-50 from 2017-2021. The sociodemographic characteristics of the cohort were described, including Ontario Health region of residence. Incident cases were followed for 6-months post-diagnosis to capture health service utilisation. Logistic regression was used to model post-diagnosis hospitalisations and Poisson regression to model outpatient psychiatrist visits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The cohort contained 44,188 individuals (41,257 non-affective psychosis; 3,058 affective psychosis). We observed substantial regional variation in incidence rates, which were higher in the North Western region for non-affective psychosis (167.44/100,000) and North Eastern region for affective psychosis (14.23/100,000) compared to the provincial average (92.24; 6.84/100,000, respectively). Compared to the Toronto region, post-diagnosis hospitalisations were significantly higher in the North East (non-affective psychosis aOR 1.14, 95%CI 1.01-1.30; affective psychosis aOR 1.69, 95%CI 1.13-2.54). Among those with non-affective psychosis, outpatient psychiatrist visits were significantly lower in all regions compared to Toronto (e.g., East aRR 0.61, 95%CI 0.60-0.62; North West aRR 0.34, 95%CI 0.32-0.36).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There is considerable regional variation in incident psychosis and inverse relationships between hospitalisations and outpatient care. To successfully plan for future EPI programs in Ontario, it is essential to understand regional needs using a systematic, population-based approach.</p>","PeriodicalId":36483,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Population Data Science","volume":"10 1","pages":"2968"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12622573/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145551377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}