Archives: Research

self-harm-suicide-ideation-data-linkage-1024x680

Examining the factors associated with self-harm, suicide ideation and subsequent mortality through data linkage

Self-Harm (SH) and suicide ideation (SI) (i.e. thoughts about dying by suicide) are two of the most important known risk factors for death by suicide. Increasing suicide rates are a major public health concern and Northern Ireland (NI) consistently has the highest rate of suicide in the UK and Ireland. Recent nationwide policies to reduce suicide are now including a focus on reducing SH and SI as these are precursors to suicide. However, little is known about what causes SH and SI, how these two factors are related and what impact they have on mortality risk. Understanding the individual level, household-level, area-level and health related predictors for SH, SI and suicide is of vital public health importance so that intervention services can be targeted accurately.

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May 12, 2020
maternal-obesity.

Social and Economic Determinants of Maternal Obesity

The obesity epidemic continues to be one of the biggest public health challenges in the 21st century. Rates continue to rise globally and at all stages of the life course. In pregnant women this can be especially problematic due to the increased risk of pregnancy complications, subsequent non-communicable diseases, adverse birth outcomes and increased risk of obesity and metabolic diseases in later life for the offspring.

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May 12, 2020
irish language

Keeping it, losing it, or gaining it? The loss, retention and uptake of Irish in Northern Ireland 2001-2011 and UIster Scots in 2011

Language loss, retention, and gain amongst smaller languages has attracted much attention.  Most of this work has concentrated on communities or individual life courses although census data have been used to map spatial concentrations of language users, and patterns of advance and retreat through time.  However, there have been few quantitative population-level analyses which combine the general insights of the census with those from individual-level and community studies. Although the health benefits of learning and using a second language have been well recognised, there is also little evidence quantifying these advantages in relation to the general health and wellbeing associated with knowledge of another language in a post-conflict setting.

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May 12, 2020
A descriptive and empirical analysis of labour market change in Northern Ireland between 1991 and 2011, with a focus on the investigation of historic and emerging labour market inequalities.

A descriptive and empirical analysis of labour market change in Northern Ireland between 1991 and 2011, with a focus on the investigation of historic and emerging labour market inequalities.

Over recent decades Northern Ireland’s labour market has been characterised by inequality, largely as a result of its place within a religiously divided society. One manifestation of this division has been a higher average employment rate among the Protestant population relative to the Roman Catholic population. Many explanations were offered for this disparity, the most contentious of which was religious discrimination (see Smith and Chambers, 1991). Concurrent with legislation enacted to address such discrimination, Northern Ireland underwent much economic and social transformation. These events, it has been argued, made a joint contribution to reducing the religion-employment disparity (see Shuttleworth and Osborne, 2004) – but it is not clear whether this remains the case, or whether other inequalities have arisen (or displaced past inequalities). Indeed, it is much less clear whether inequalities within religious groupings (e.g. between Protestant denominations) have developed over time and whether these could be of greater significance than those between the two main communities.

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December 16, 2019
Learning Disability and Northern Ireland: Achieving Proportionate Universalism through administrative data research.

Learning Disability and Northern Ireland: Achieving Proportionate Universalism through administrative data research.

A multi‐disciplinary team comprising Secondary Data Analysis Initiative funded academic Research Team from Ulster University, University of Bristol and senior representatives from Public Health England, the Health and Social Care Board, the Public Health Agency (PHA), Positive Futures, The Association for Real Change (ARC), the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts and the service user group Compass Advocacy Network (CAN) aim to exploit, link and maximise the use of NI Census and Mortality data to begin to formulate guidelines to tailor, target and implement support for individuals with learning disability across NI.

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December 16, 2019
Quantifying surgical under-treatment in older adult cancer patients.

Quantifying surgical under-treatment in older adult cancer patients.

This project looking at cohorts of cancer patients diagnosed between 2011-2015 compiled in a dataset by the NICR, and will be linked to the 2011 Census and therefore meets the longitudinal criterion required for a NILS project. The NILS and NICR have the full complement of data required to answer the research question in the census year 2011. The quality of staging, comorbidity, and treatment information in NICR has increased to sufficient levels in the last 10 years. From the NILS dataset, we require the health information on frailty (e.g. Q22, 2011 Census) and comorbidity (Q23, 2011 Census) only available in 2011.

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December 16, 2019
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