TIMMS

Completed projects

The following studies have been completed or are no longer funded.

PREM-PIC - Potential Risk of childrEn born preMature requiring Paediatric Intensive Care: Examining risks of critical illness, and trends in paediatric intensive care utilisation for children born premature 

2021 - 2024

This NIHR-funded fellowship looked at very preterm-born children born from 2013 to 2018 in England and Wales, to see how many children needed admission to Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) after going home from neonatal units, up to the age of two years.

Using this national data, working with families of preterm-born children, infographics were created to help healthcare professionals discuss the risk of PICU admission with families in neonatal units, before babies go home.

Understanding the epidemiology, experiences and variation in the transition from neonatal to paediatric care: a mixed methods study

2020 - 2024

Following birth, around one in seven babies are admitted for specialist neonatal care in the UK. Admission rates to neonatal care have increased in the last few years, partly due to improved survival of the most vulnerable babies, particularly those born very prematurely or those with serious health problems. Survival of these babies has become increasingly normalised by clinicians and families, but the impact of their health and the care received immediately after birth can be lifelong. There has also been an increase in admissions to paediatric intensive care units (PICU) in the last ten to fifteen years. Many admissions relate to children who received neonatal care immediately after birth, although the exact number is not known.

Very little is known about the transition between neonatal and paediatric care including which children are likely to experience both types of care, and how clinical services, parents and professionals manage the transition. This work explored the experiences of these families and children from multiple perspectives.

This work was funded by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship from 2020 to 2024.

DEPICT Study

2018 - 2020

Children and young people who are very ill often need to be transferred to a specialist ward called a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). The specialist teams that perform this transfer are called transport teams.

The main aim of the DEPICT study was to understand whether these differences influence how children recover and how children and their families experience being transported to a PICU. 

The DEPICT Study was funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme and you can read the study findings in our final funder report

Modelling Neonatal Care Pathways

Following birth approximately 1 in 10 babies will require specialist neonatal care. These babies have a variety of medical issues, although often they will have been born preterm and need to stay in hospital for a long time. During their time in hospital, they will require a variety of treatments and types of care. This project investigated how to predict the length of stay preterm babies will have in hospital, whilst also considering the different types of care they will require.

This project ran from 2013 to 2018 and was funded by an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship. 

PRISM-2 - PRemature Infants' Skills in Mathematics 2

PRISM-2 is a follow-on from the original PRISM Study. Children who took part in the PRISM Study were followed up in secondary school.  The aims of the PRISM-2 included finding out how very premature children’s maths skills develop over childhood and what difficulties they might have in maths in secondary school. The results of the study were used to develop a new web-based training programme for teachers to show them the best ways to support premature children’s learning in the classroom. 

RECAP preterm - Research on European children and adults born preterm

The overall aim of the RECAP preterm project was to improve the health, development and quality of life of children and adults born very preterm or with a very low birth weight by combining extensive data from European cohort studies in the RECAP Preterm Data Platform. This makes it possible to evaluate changes in outcomes over time while providing important information on how the evolution in care and survival of these high risk babies has changed their developmental outcomes and quality of life.

SHIPS - Screening to improve health in very preterm infants in Europe

The SHIPS Study was a European research project which aimed to find out about the kinds of follow-up care that very premature babies receive after they are discharged from hospital and how differences in the kinds of support parents receive might be related to their child’s health and development. The information gained has been used to develop guidelines that doctors, health and education professionals can follow to enable them to provide the best long-term support for very premature babies and their families.

EMSYCAR - East Midlands and South Yorkshire Congenital Anomalies Register

EMSYCAR collected data from 1 January 1997 to 31 March 2015. At first covering the former Trent region, it expanded in 2003 to include Northamptonshire, and monitored around 74,000 births per annum.

It aimed to establish the prevalence of congenital anomalies in the population, monitoring changes over time, and maintaining surveillance throughout the region, investigating any changes in frequency which become apparent. Research into the possible causes and consequences of individual congenital anomalies was undertaken, and data used to evaluate screening, prevention and treatment.

EPICure 2 - A study of extreme prematurity in 2006

The first EPICure Study was established in 1995 to determine the chances of survival and later health status by following up children who were born in the United Kingdom and Ireland at less than 26 weeks gestational age. EPICure 2 looked at a new cohort of babies born in England at 26 weeks of gestation or less during 2006.

LAMBS - Late And Moderate preterm Birth Study

LAMBS was a population-based prospective study of late and moderate preterm birth that aimed to identify perinatal and neonatal risk factors contributing to preterm delivery in infants born in the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire area and provide current information about the short and long-term outcomes of infants born at this preterm gestation. LAMBS highlighted areas in which changes in perinatal and neonatal care may improve babies' outcomes and aimed to provide information to guide allocation of resources for the provision of ongoing health and educational support for children and young adults with problems.

NIHR Programme Grant - Towards reducing variations in infant mortality and morbidity: a population approach

This research programme comprised two streams: Stream 1 investigated why babies die in the first year of life (e.g. prematurity, serious birth defect, infection) and explored health inequalities across the UK relating to local factors such as deprivation, ethnicity and place of birth. Stream 2 was the LAMBS study, which looked at the group of babies born moderately premature (4 to 7 weeks early). 

PANDA - Preterm AND After

PANDA aimed to provide information about the long-term outcome of very preterm infants to health professionals for the counselling of parents, and to monitor the appropriateness of treatments and the cost effectiveness of neonatal intensive care services. Data was collected using questionnaires sent to the parents or guardians of The Neonatal Survey (TNS) infants who were born on or after 1 January 2007 at less than 31 weeks' gestation to a mother resident in East Midlands and Yorkshire and were survivors at 2 years of corrected age.

PRIME - Preterm Birth: Impact on Mathematics and Education

Around 70,000 children are born preterm (before 37 weeks of gestation) each year in England alone, many of whom may have health and developmental problems later in life. As the numbers of babies born preterm continues to increase, this will pose challenges for education systems worldwide. The PRIME Study was carried out by researchers in Leicester, Loughborough and Warwick to learn more about the outcomes of these children in order to provide important information for public policy and education planning. 

PRISM - PRemature Infants' Skills in Mathematics

Around 13,000 babies are born very prematurely, before 32 weeks of gestation, each year in England alone. These babies are at high risk for problems with their thinking and learning later in life and up to 2 in 3 will have special educational needs, particularly in maths. The PRISM Study was carried out by researchers in Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and London to find out about the nature and causes of very premature children’s difficulties with maths in primary school to help understand the best ways to support their learning in the classroom.

TNS - The Neonatal Survey

The aims of TNS were to underpin clinical governance in relation to neonatal intensive care (NIC) services; facilitate the planning of the future strategy and development of NIC services; provide a research infrastructure for NIC; and provide education for professionals involved in NIC.

Understanding inequalities in cause-specific infant mortality

The key aim of this study was to understand the widening inequalities in infant mortality rates (death in the first year of life). We found that these inequalities were mostly due to high rates of babies born preterm (before 37 weeks of gestation) or with a congenital anomaly in more deprived areas.

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