Active Mental Health Pregnancy, Children & Inherited Conditions

Transforming child health outcomes through data linkage

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Leeds
Funding £182K
Period Feb 2025 — Feb 2027

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Children who survive a stay in intensive care are at higher risk of developing mental health problems later in life, but researchers have lacked the large-scale data to understand why. Most existing studies rely on small groups, short follow-up periods, or self-reported symptoms rather than clinical diagnoses. This project will link nationwide population-level health records to track the “whole journey” of survivors from childhood into adulthood, identifying who develops mental health conditions and what factors drive that risk. If successful, the work could transform how clinicians identify high-risk children early and target interventions—such as psychological support or monitoring—before problems become severe. The research does not test a new treatment or device; instead, it builds a foundational evidence base using existing data. That deeper understanding of the determinants of mental health morbidity could eventually change follow-up care guidelines for paediatric intensive care survivors, improving long-term outcomes for a growing population whose physical survival has outpaced knowledge of their psychological needs.

View original technical description
Survival rates following early life critical illness have improved markedly. However, there is a resulting impact on physical and mental health conditions for survivors. To date, there has been a lot of research focusing on physical outcomes for this group of patients, little is known about their long term mental health. Existing studies on mental health in survivors of early life critical illnesses are limited by small sample sizes, short term follow-up and using self-reported patient outcomes rather than objective clinical diagnoses. Understanding the mental health morbidity inherent in early life critical illness survivors, and identifying the determinants of the mental health morbidity can provide comprehensive and high resolution insights. This will enable identifying high risk individuals and provide targeted intervention to improve outcomes for the vulnerable groups with mental health issues. I aim to use the Wellcome Accelerator Award funding to carry out a project investigating long term mental health morbidity in early life critical illness survivors, identify determinants and impact on survival using linked nationwide population level data that captures the patients’ “whole journey”.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Tatendashe Dondo (EPMC Awardee)

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Original classification

Wellcome Accelerator Awards

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.