Transcript Child of the New Century

The Role of Record Linkage in the UK
Millennium Cohort Study
Eucconet Workshop
Bergen
June 15-17 2011
Heather Joshi,
Centre for Longitudinal Studies
Institute of Education, University of London
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Outline of talk

Introduction to the British Birth cohorts and the
Millennium Cohort Study in particular
 Achieved and planned record linkages
 Looking to the future
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
British Birth Cohort Studies
1946:The MRC National Survey of Health & Development (NSHD)
maternity study became longitudinal in 1948 and is still following its
members, most recently at age 64
2 more perinatal studies of a week’s births:
1958: National Child Development Study (NCDS) became a follow up
at age 7 when needed for enquiry on primary schools
1970: British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70) was designed from the
outset to be followed up on social, economic and health fronts
These two cohorts are still being followed, by CLS, into mid life at
age 50 and 42.
All provide multi-disciplinary evidence of about lifecourse trajectories
and influences for many purposes.
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
The UK Millennium Cohort and other studies

MCS children born 2000-1
First national birth cohort study for 30 years

Includes Northern Ireland
Other longitudinal resources:
ALSPAC – birth cohort born around Bristol 1992-3
LSYPE cohort of young people starting age 14 in 2004
BHPS/Understanding Society Panel Study
ONS LS, SLS census linkage studies
‘2012’ cohort funding announced March 1 2011
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Objectives of MCS

To chart the initial conditions of the social, economic and health
advantages and disadvantages facing new children in the new
century and their consequences

To capture information for the future

To compare patterns of development with other cohorts

To collect information on previously neglected topics, such as
father’s involvement and child care

To investigate the wider social ecology of the family, including
community and services, splicing in geo-coded data
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
About the Millennium Cohort Study

Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a birth cohort study
of around 19,000 children born in 398 areas of the UK

Children in England and Wales were
born between:01/09/2000 and 31/08/2001

Children in Scotland and Northern Ireland were born
between: 24/11/2000 and 10/1/2002
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
MCS Surveys to date

9 month Survey in 2001/2002

Age 3 Survey in 2003/2004

Age 5 Survey in 2006

Age 7 Survey Jan 2008-Jan 2009
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
MCS Sponsors

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UK Economic & Social Research Council
ONS consortium of UK Government Departments:

ONS

DCSF

DWP

DoH

Welsh Assembly Government

Scottish Government

NI Executive
SureStart - National Evaluation in England
Children’s Fund - National Evaluation in England
Wellcome Trust
 physical activity monitoring, health record linkage
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
MCS Response: Families
COUNTRY
Number of
Sampled
Wards
MCS1
Achieved
Sample
MCS2
Achieved
Sample
MCS3
Achieved
Sample
MCS4
Achieved
Sample
ENGLAND
200
11532
10050
9717
8839
WALES
73
2761
2261
2181
2018
SCOTLAND
62
2336
1814
1814
1628
N IRELAND
62
1923
1465
1534
1372
TOTAL UK
398
18552
15590
15246
13857
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
The Millennium Cohort Study content at glance
MCS 1
MCS2
MCS 3
MCS4
2001/2
9 months
2003/4
AGE 3
2005/6
AGE 5
2008/9
AGE 7
Mother
Mother
Mother
Mother
Father
Father
Father
Father
Child
Child
Child
Older
Siblings
Older
Siblings
Teachers
Education
records
Education
records
Birth
records
Medical
records
Medical
records
Medical
records
18,552
15,590
15,246
13,857
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Birth Registration & Maternity Hospital Records

Consent to linkage for 90% of children and successful
matching with the registration record for 89% of cohort
and 75 % with hospital records.
 Content and matching method varied across 4
countries. Probabilistic in Scotland only.
 Where comparable, reasonable agreement between
survey and admin variables. Some errors in HES
detected.
 The dataset was deposited with the UK Data Archive
in April 2007. Special treatment of disclosive variables.
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
References to MCS birth linkages

Hockley, C., Quigley, M., Johnson, J., Rosenberg, R., Dezateaux, C. and
Joshi, H. (2007) ‘Millennium Cohort Study: Birth registration and hospital
episode statistics linkage. A guide to the dataset’. Centre for Longitudinal
Studies, Institute of Education, University of London. Available online at
http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/studies.asp?section=00010002000100130001

Hockley, C., Quigley, M., Hughes, G., Calderwood, L., Joshi, H. and
Davidson, L. (2007) ‘Linking Millennium Cohort data to birth registration and
hospital episode records’. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology

Quigley, M., Hockley, C. and Davidson, L. (2007) ‘Agreement between
hospital records and maternal recall of mode of delivery: Evidence from
12,391 deliveries in the UK Millennium Cohort Study’. British Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 114(2), 195-200
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Administrative data linkage for which consent
sought at MCS4
Cohort
Member
Siblings
Parents
Health
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Education


Economic
following lives from birth and through the adult years

www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Child health variables
Consent to link to ‘health records’ for
the cohort child asked up to age 14 at MCS4
 Also covered mothers, fathers and siblings up to age
14
 Consent rates:



Child: 95%, Main parent 90% , Partner 86%
Attempts to make the linkage with Hospital Episode
Statistics currently in progress. Exploration of the
feasibility of linking to primary care records will follow
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Education

At age 5, Foundation Stage Profile –
Routine teacher assessment of children at the end of first
year of primary school. State schools in England only.
Special collection by Department of Education for cohort
children. 95% of the eligible were matched into MCS.

At age 7 consent given by 96% of parents to link cohort child
and siblings (until age 16 and 14 respectively) to routine data in
state schools (NPD in England). This will not be feasible in
Northern Ireland. Arrangements currently being made for
linkage and secure access to linked data.
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Economic Records

Consent was sought to link to records on earnings
and benefits held by the DWP ( Dept of Work and
Pensions)
 Consent obtained from 84% main, 69% partner
respondents
 DWP suffered a well-publicised loss of Child Benefit
discs containing personal information. All record
linkage projects were put on hold
 There is some hope this problem is not permanent.
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Other linkages in MCS

Use of geo-codes to enhance data on localities

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Proximity to power lines
Rural areas
Neighbourhood deprivation
May need special provisions to safeguard confidentiality

Day care settings- a subset of 301 attended at MCS2
have been linked to Ofsted inspection reports as well
as auxiliary observation
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
Issues in data linkage

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Who gives consent for how long?
How is matching done?
Who does it? – the survey, the admin source or third
party?
Who owns the linked data?
How can it be used without harming confidentiality?
Data linkage is not cheap, especially where there are
multiple agencies holding the admin data.
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
What happens next to MCS?

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The next MCS survey will take place when the
children are 11, in 2012, last year of primary school
We hope linked datasets will emerge from the pipeline
Analysis proceeds, including international
comparisons.
Further follow-up planned for ages 14, 17, and into
adulthood, funding to be confirmed.
More information:
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk and www.eucconet.com
following lives from birth and through the adult years
www.cls.ioe.ac.uk