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What are the Environmental Child Health Research Group researching?
We are using large, administrative data to study how the local environment affects children’s health as they are growing up.
We are particularly interested in the impacts of climate change, changing pollution exposures, and indoor environments in homes and schools on children’s health and education outcomes.
What do we do?
We carry out research on how children’s health and education is impacted by the environment in which they live, grow, and learn. To do this, we link together large, administrative data sets routinely collected by the government on a range of factors including health, education, social care, housing, and air pollution to create rich data resources for research. We also use cohort data collected for research purposes. By prioritising population-level datasets on child health and environments where available, we ensure our research is policy-relevant and impactful. We also regularly engage with parents, children and young people to ensure their views are incorporated when deciding on research questions and sharing research findings.
Some of our ongoing projects include the PICNIC study (air Pollution, housing and respiratory tract Infections in Children: National bIrth Cohort study), MAGENTA study (Maternal And preGnancy hEalth aNd elevaTed heAt) and the Kids Environment and Health Cohort.
Why do we do this research?
Children are much more vulnerable to health-damaging impacts of the environments in and around their homes and schools than adults. Children being exposed to such things as outdoor air pollution, overcrowding, mould in the home, or fast food advertising near schools, as well as a lack of access to greenspace and other infrastructure during childhood, is associated with the development of long-term conditions such as asthma, poor mental health, obesity and worse educational attainment. We need a better understanding of how the local environment influences the health and education of children. Furthermore, the government is introducing a number of measures to improve environments and make housing safer, and research is needed to explore the impact of such environmental policies on children’s health, wellbeing, and school attainment.
Our teaching
- Introduction to geo-linking cohort and admin data to social and physical environmental data - https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/events/intro-to-geolinking-cohort-data/
- Bachelor of Sciences in Population Health Sciences - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/degrees/population-health-sciences-bsc
- Masters if Sciences in Paediatrics and Child Health: Global Child Health - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught-degrees/paediatrics-and-child-health-global-child-health-msc
