Born in Scotland in the 2020s - Pilot study

Pregnancy offers a unique opportunity to positively impact on short- and long-term health outcomes of both the mother and baby and thus to influence the health of the next generation. In this study, we aim to conduct a pilot study to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a large population study of 100,000 pregnant women and their children, recruited from across the whole of Scotland. The pilot study will pave the way for a new "Born in Scotland in the 2020s" cohort which will gather and safely store routinely collected clinical, health and social data from hospitals, schools and others sources. This confidential data will then be then anonymised so that individual participants cannot be identified before data analysis. We will also store blood and urine samples which are left over and normally thrown away after they have been used for diagnostic purposes. We will link these samples to the other data to establish a unique bioresource which can be used to identify new biomarkers for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Our study will allow us to understand the links between early life experiences and later ill health and to identify novel targets for intervention to improve outcomes for pregnant women and their children. The rich and extensive data collected will be a valuable and sustainable resource for researchers in the field.

We aim to conduct a pilot study to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing the proposed "Born in Scotland in the 2020s" population cohort of 100,000 pregnant women and their children in Scotland, including extensive data linkage from mothers, fathers and children linked to a bioresource. We plan an efficient study design by capitalising on routine data and biological sample collection. The cohort will be a sustainable resource to address fundamental and contemporaneous questions in our understanding of the drivers of long-term maternal and child health, including pregnancy and its complications.

ROUTINE CLINICAL AND HEALTH SERVICE will be used to record details of:
a) socio-demographic, medical and obstetric history
b) details of the current pregnancy including laboratory results, fetal ultrasound scans, pregnancy complications
c) birth outcomes
d) healthcare usage

BIOSAMPLES will be stored and banked for future use, utilising the well-established Scottish National Health Services Research Scotland (NRS) Biorepositories which enable storage of surplus samples which would otherwise be discarded after clinical use.

LONG-TERM FOLLOW UP will be through prospective and retrospective record linkage of mothers, fathers and children using the Scottish Community Health Index (CHI) unique personal identifier to relevant health and healthcare databases, for example primary and secondary care and educational attainment.

We bring together a multidisciplinary team with expertise in epidemiology, birth cohorts, life-course health, obstetric medicine, neonatology, biobanking, data science, clinical trials, public health and patient, public involvement. Together our research addresses the mechanisms, causes, consequences, optimal management of pregnancy, its complications and the long term health for mothers and their children giving us the skills and knowledge to develop a flexible, dynamic and sustainable resource, "Born in Scotland in the 2020s".