Category: child-health (dark blue)
A systematic review of complementary feeding practices in South Asian infants and young children: the Bangladesh perspective
CLAHRC asthma awareness video is making an impact
Our Behind the Jump video is impacting young people with asthma.
Our asthma schools study worked with Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre (GLYPT) to produce the short asthma awareness film shot at the LEAP Parkour Park in Westminster, London.
A recent comment has high praise for the film
“The timing of the release of this video after the recent tragedy within our community felt particularly important. I’ve been asthmatic since I was three years old, and have a lung capacity so pitiful that it shocks and confuses doctors every time I get retested (“are you sure you did the test right??”) but when I’m out training Parkour I always feel my healthiest. I should be less lazy about using my inhalers, this was a good reminder. Great video.”
The need for Complex systems model of evidence for Public Health
Asthma control in London secondary school children
Photograph selected in competition for UCL India Voices poster
Congratulations go out to Jennifer Martin, who has had an image she took in India chosen to represent the UCL India Voices project in 2017.
A PhD student with the Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) project, Jennifer took the picture while conducting research with women in Mumbai. After submitting it to a UCL photography competition, Jennifer’s photograph was selected as the image for UCL India Voices poster.
Advertising UCL’s Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding India Voices cross-disciplinary programme of film, debate and the arts, the poster can be seen across UCL.
Details of the India Voices programme can be found on the UCL Grand Challenges website.
Asthma control in London secondary school children
Evaluating a Healthy Schools programme – our report and recommendations published
School-based interventions to increase health and wellbeing
The health and wellbeing of school children is a pressing concern in England, with a growing prevalence of obesity and diabetes in childhood. It is also widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning, as well as their physical and social health and mental wellbeing in adulthood.
These increased concerns, aligned with a better recognition of the emotional and mental health needs of children, led the Greater London Authority (GLA) to develop and co-ordinate a school based health programme to improve health and wellbeing for all pupils in London.
The result was the development of the GLA’s Healthy Schools London programme (HSL) launched in April 2013 and co-ordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA). The programme encourages schools to adopt a whole school approach to combat the specific health and wellbeing needs of their pupils by developing their policies and procedures. HSL recognises and rewards the schools’ endeavours through a system of awards: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
A CLAHRC North Thames project recently completed a two-year evaluation of the programme. The aim of the evaluation was to assess the contribution of the programme to improving educational attainment, and health and well-being, among schoolchildren in London. It was funded jointly by the GLA and the CLAHRC, and was conducted between 2014 and 2016 by Dr Harry Rutter and Dr Andrew Barnfield from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
We conducted literature reviews, focus groups in 20 schools, interviews with 6 directors of public health and directors of children’s services, focus groups with borough leads, interviews with the GLA core team and borough leads, and two assessment visits to special schools. We also conducted an online survey across all participating schools, with a total of over 450 responses.
Was HSL effective in its aims?
Our evaluation
- Assessed the potential for the HSL programme to influence educational achievement, promote healthy lifestyle behaviours, and reduce health inequalities in London
- Investigated the extent to which becoming a Healthy School is associated with changes in school-level policies, and activities.
- Assessed the nature and level of engagement with the HSL programme by schools, including any differential uptake by socio-economic factors, and to understand the drivers and barriers to becoming a Healthy School
- Provided recommendations to inform the ongoing development of the HSL programme
The evaluation concluded that HSL provides a valuable mechanism to encourage change at school level. Among a suite of recommendations, the evaluation suggested that:
- HSL would be strengthened by encouraging schools to work more closely together.
- A mentoring programme could help to spread best practice between schools,
- There is scope for stronger links between school sand local communities.
- The implementation of a programme to enhance health and wellbeing provision in early year’s settings could provide an additional mechanism for health improvement, and promote school preparedness among the capital’s children.
Read the full report and recommendations
London Evening Standard features CLAHRC research on asthma
The London Evening Standard features CLAHRC research in a story on the impact of air pollution on the capital’s younger asthma sufferers.
Our newly published research highlights poor asthma control and knowledge among London secondary school pupils and is referenced in the piece, which also includes contributions from CLAHRC researchers Professor Jonathan Grigg and Kate Harris.
The paper has campaigned extensively on the quality of London’s air, and the health impact on young and developing lungs. Poor asthma control, as highlighted in our work, can make things worse for those already living with respiratory conditions.
Professor Jonathan Grigg, CLAHRC child health theme and Principal Investigator on the study runs a severe asthma clinic at the Royal London hospital, said: “If you have asthma and it is not well-controlled, you are going to be more likely to suffer from these days of high pollution.If you have poor control, you run a risk of having a severe episode. The number of children who die is very small, but we are not really treating asthma as seriously as we should. In other countries, they say, ‘If you have got asthma, make sure you take your medication on the next few days’. That is what I would do. I would say, ‘There is an air pollution event. Make sure you take it.’ ”
Another researcher on the project Katherine Harris was quoted in the ES story, saying it was the first childhood asthma study carried out in schools: “We know from previous work about asthma in children that there were high levels of hospitalisation and asthma-related deaths were higher than Europe.One reason could be due to poor levels of asthma control in children. What we concluded is that there is a prevalence of poor control in children. There are also low levels of knowledge. A lot of children don’t understand what their medication does or how it was helping them.”
CLAHRC research reveals poor asthma control and knowledge common among London schoolchildren
Newly published CLAHRC research has revealed that nearly half of secondary school pupils living with asthma have sub-optimal control of their condition and gaps in knowledge around symptoms, triggers and treatments.
The findings, published in the Journal of Asthma, emerged from the results of nearly 800 pupils from across London schools completing questionnaires incorporating the asthma control test (ACT) – a validated tool for assessing control in asthmatic children aged 12 years and older. Using the ACT, we sought to assess asthma control and knowledge in London secondary school children.
Results showed a high prevalence of poor asthma control, poor asthma knowledge, and a high morbidity in London children with asthma.
799 children with doctor-diagnosed asthma completed the questionnaire;
- suboptimal asthma control was reported by 49.6% of students
- over a third (42.4%) prescribed a short-acting β2-agonist inhaler felt uncomfortable using it at school, and 29.2% reported not using this inhaler when wheezy
- 56.4% of those with regular inhaled corticosteroids did not take them as prescribed, and 41.7% did not know what this inhaler was for.
- suboptimal control was associated with a greater proportion of students reporting that they were “somewhat”, “hardly” or “not at all” comfortable using inhalers at school (52.7% vs 29.1 %) and outside school (22.8% vs. 14.8%)
Since suboptimal control by ACT is a risk factor for future severe exacerbations, and should prompt more intense clinical monitoring, our results suggest a need for interventions aimed at addressing poor asthma control in UK schoolchildren.
Read the full paper below
Asthma control in London secondary school children
Katherine Harris , MSc, Gioia Mosler Centre for Genomics and Child Health, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK , PhD, Samson A. Williams , BSc, Abigail Whitehouse , MBChB, Rosalind Raine , MBBS, PhD & Jonathan Grigg , MD
Journal of Asthma
