Overview
My research as a statistician and epidemiologist focuses on the early years of life and public health. I specialise in the use of large complex administrative datasets and longitudinal quantitative data analyses including Bayesian multilevel modelling, Andersen-Gill models and multiple imputation.
My previous projects span multiple health and social factors including:
- Investigating asthma, wheeze or respiratory tract infections on school educational attainment at age 6-7 years
- Determining the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and social care on health and educational attainment outcomes in children and young adults
- Establishing the improvement in health outcomes for Down Syndrome children during the last 20 years.
These analyses use the anonymised administrative data held in the SAIL databank. My other previous studies used survey methods to investigate birth defects. In previous research I also investigated residential moves, mental health and vaccinations during childhood.
Publications
2024
- Lowthian, E. et al. 2024. Receipt of social services intervention in childhood, educational attainment and emergency hospital admissions: longitudinal analyses of national administrative health, social care, and education data in Wales, UK. BMC Public Health 24, article number: 2912. (10.1186/s12889-024-20204-6)
2023
- Anthony, R. et al. 2023. Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A Latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales. Child: Care, Health and Development 49(5), pp. 889-897. (10.1111/cch.13097)
- Hurt, L. et al. 2023. Childhood outcomes in children with and without cardiac echogenic foci: An electronic birth cohort study in Wales, UK. Children 10(7), article number: 1233. (10.3390/children10071233)
2022
- Esperanza, R., Evans, A., Tucker, D., Paranjothy, S. and Hurt, L. 2022. Hospital admissions in infants with Down syndrome: a record-linked population-based cohort study in Wales. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 66, pp. 225-239. (10.1111/jir.12903)
- Evans, A. 2022. Impact of childhood health and household experiences on educational attainment: Analysis using administrative data. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
- Hutchings, H. A., Evans, A., James-Ellison, M., Lyons, R. A. and Barnes, P. M. 2022. Gestational age at birth and health and educational outcomes - a cohort study. The Welsh Paediatric Journal 56, pp. 23-28.
2021
- Lowthian, E. et al. 2021. Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: an electronic birth cohort study. BMC Medicine 19, article number: 172. (10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x)
- Evans, A., Farewell, D., Demmler, J., Bandyopadhyay, A., Powell, C. V. E. and Paranjothy, S. 2021. Association of asthma severity and educational attainment at age 6-7 years in a birth cohort: population-based record-linkage study. Thorax 76(2) (10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215422)
2020
- Evans, A. et al. 2020. Adverse childhood experiences during childhood and academic attainment at age 7 and 11 years: an electronic birth cohort study. Public Health 189, pp. 37-47. (10.1016/j.puhe.2020.08.027)
- Allen, L. A. et al. 2020. Pregnancy in teenagers diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood: a national population based e-cohort study. Diabetologia 63, pp. 799-810. (10.1007/s00125-019-05063-w)
2019
- Evans, A. et al. 2019. The role of health and social factors in education outcome: a record-linked electronic birth cohort analysis. PLoS ONE 14(8), article number: e0220771. (10.1371/journal.pone.0220771)
- Trefan, L. et al. 2019. Electronic Longitudinal Alcohol Study in Communities (ELAStiC) Wales - protocol for platform development. International Journal of Population Data Science 4(1), article number: 14. (10.23889/ijpds.v4i1.581)
2018
- Paranjothy, S. et al. 2018. Risk of emergency hospital admission in children associated with mental disorders and alcohol misuse in the household: an electronic birth cohort study. Lancet Public Health 3(6), pp. e279-e288. (10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30069-0)
2017
- Moore, S. C. et al. 2017. The ELAStiC (Electronic Longitudinal Alcohol Study in Communities) project. International Journal for Population Data Science 1(1), article number: 264. (10.23889/ijpds.v1i1.284)
2016
- Hutchings, H. A. et al. 2016. Residential moving and preventable hospitalizations. Pediatrics 138(1), article number: e 2015283. (10.1542/peds.2015-2836)
- Hutchings, H. A. et al. 2016. Does frequent residential mobility in early years affect the uptake and timeliness of routine immunisations? An anonymised cohort study. Vaccine 34(15), pp. 1773-1777. (10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.02.049)
2013
- Palmer, S. R. et al. 2013. The role of maternal stress in early pregnancy in the aetiology of gastroschisis: an incident case control study. PLoS ONE 8(11), article number: e80103. (10.1371/journal.pone.0080103)
- Hutchings, H. A. et al. 2013. Do children who move home and school frequently have poorer educational outcomes in their early years at school? An anonymised cohort study. PLoS ONE 8(8), article number: e70601. (10.1371/journal.pone.0070601)
2012
- Paranjothy, S. et al. 2012. The role of maternal nutrition in the aetiology of gastroschisis: an incident case-control study. International Journal of Epidemiology 41(4), pp. 1141-1152. (10.1093/ije/dys092)
- Lyons, R. A. et al. 2012. Development and use of a privacy-protecting total population record linkage system to support observational, interventional, and policy relevant research. The Lancet 380, article number: S6. (10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60362-1)
Teaching
- Tutor – Statistical methodology module on the Masters in Primary Care and Public Health
- Data clinic statistics support for students and staff
- Small group teaching, Epidemiology and Statistics - Undergraduate Medicine
- Medical statistics
- Large datasets
- Administrative data
- Child health and education
- Congenital anomalies
The Wales Electronic Cohort for Children (WECC) contains anonymised administrative records for over 890,000 children in Wales. I was involved in the set-up of this cohort and continue to use the data set in research to improve the lives of children in Wales and reduce health inequalities.
Supervision
- Dissertation supervisor - Masters in Primary Care and Public Health
- Intercalated year project supervisor – Undergraduate Medicine