New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS): an Australian multiagency, multigenerational, longitudinal record linkage study

Abstract

PurposeThe initial aim of this multiagency, multigenerational record linkage study is to identify childhood profiles of developmental vulnerability and resilience, and to identify the determinants of these profiles. The eventual aim is to identify risk and protective factors for later childhood-onset and adolescent-onset mental health problems, and other adverse social outcomes, using subsequent waves of record linkage. The research will assist in informing the development of public policy and intervention guidelines to help prevent or mitigate adverse long-term health and social outcomes.ParticipantsThe study comprises a population cohort of 87 026 children in the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW). The cohort was defined by entry into the first year of full-time schooling in NSW in 2009, at which time class teachers completed the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) on each child (with 99.7% coverage in NSW). The AEDC data have been linked to the children's birth, health, school and child protection records for the period from birth to school entry, and to the health and criminal records of their parents, as well as mortality databases.Findings to dateDescriptive data summarising sex, geographic and socioeconomic distributions, and linkage rates for the various administrative databases are presented. Child data are summarised, and the mental health and criminal records data of the children's parents are provided.Future plansIn 2015, at age 11 years, a self-report mental health survey was administered to the cohort in collaboration with government, independent and Catholic primary school sectors. A second record linkage, spanning birth to age 11 years, will be undertaken to link this survey data with the aforementioned administrative databases. This will enable a further identification of putative risk and protective factors for adverse mental health and other outcomes in adolescence, which can then be tested in subsequent record linkages.

Childhood developmental vulnerabilities associated with early life exposure to infectious and noninfectious diseases and maternal mental illness

“…Data were drawn from a multiagency administrative record linkage study combined with cross‐sectional survey data for a cohort of 87,026 children and their parents (Carr et al., ). Probabilistic record linkage was conducted by the NSW Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL; http://www.cherel.org.au/) according to nationally legislated privacy protocols, combining routinely collected administrative records related to each child's birth, health, education, and welfare status, as well as parental (health) records for 72,245 children (83% of the cohort) whose births were registered in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia (Carr et al., ); the false positive linkage rate was ≤0.5%.…”

Pervasive influence of maternal and paternal criminal offending on early childhood development: a population data linkage study

“…Data were drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS; ; Carr et al 2016), which uses multi-agency data linkage to combine population records for a cohort of 87 026 children and their parents. Linkage of data from early childhood (birth to 5 years) was completed in 2014 by an independent agency, the Centre for Health Record Linkage (), using probabilistic linkage methods and with adherence to strict privacy protocols (researchers received de-identified records only).…”

“…Linkage of data from early childhood (birth to 5 years) was completed in 2014 by an independent agency, the Centre for Health Record Linkage (), using probabilistic linkage methods and with adherence to strict privacy protocols (researchers received de-identified records only). Matching variables included name, date of birth, residential address and sex (for detail on linkage methods and data collections, see Carr et al 2016). Ethical review was conducted by the NSW Population and Health Services Research Ethics Committee (HREC/11/CIPHS/14), with data custodian approvals granted by the relevant government departments.…”

The Survey of School Promotion of Emotional and Social Health (SSPESH): A Brief Measure of the Implementation of Whole-School Mental Health Promotion

“…This research was conducted as part of the New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) in Australia (Carr et al, 2016;Green et al, in press). The NSW-CDS is a multi-agency, intergenerational data linkage study that brings together diverse health, education, welfare, and justice records in a population cohort of approximately 90,000 children and their parents.…”

“…It offers the opportunity to address the question: Does whole-school mental health promotion make a difference to the social, emotional, behavioural and educational outcomes of children? Such work is envisaged to occur within the NSW-CDS cohort (Carr et al, 2016; in press), via linkage to the self-reported Middle Childhood Survey mental health and wellbeing outcomes gathered from children at approximately 11 years of age, in their final year of primary schooling (Laurens et al, 2017), as well as multi-agency administrative records (Carr et al, 2016;Green et al, in press). Accordingly, examining the relationship between the SSPESH and student social emotional health over time is beyond the scope of the present paper, but will be explored in subsequent manuscripts from the study.…”