Episode seven: The CHILDS Study

In the final episode of our second season of the podcast Postdoctoral Research Assistant Dr Iain Hardie talks to PhD student Hannah Gofton about the CHILDS (COVID-19 Health Impact on Long-term Child Development in Scotland) Study, a project that utilised data from almost 25,000 babies born in Scotland during the pandemic found no link between concerns with a child’s development at 13 to 15 months and the mother contracting the virus during pregnancy.

The study has three aims. The first is on maternal infections during pregnancy. If a mother had a Covid infection during the pregnancy and whether that's associated with childhood developmental outcomes. The second is on the lock-down measures. So we're looking at whether during the lock-downs there were any changes in the rates of childhood developmental concerns during that period. Finally we look at things like socioeconomic inequalities.

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This episode's guests

Dr Iain Hardie

Dr Hardie is a postdoctoral research assistant currently working on The CHILDS study, and the 'Understanding the effects of prenatal maternal infections on developmental outcomes, autism spectrum disorder and learning disabilities' study. Research for these projects involves analysing Scottish linked administrative health data in order to examine the impact of prenatal infections (both COVID-19 and other types of infections), COVID-19 lockdown measures, on a range of childhood developmental outcomes.

Hannah Gofton

A PhD student within the Department of Child Life and Health here at the University of Edinburgh, and my research is focusing on the neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes of early onset epilepsy in adolescence.