The feasibility of reactivating dormant clinical trial data in England: a proof-of concept study linking infant feeding studies to educational records

More than 4,000 infants have been involved in a series of 11 enriched infant feeding trials between 1982 and 2001 at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH). Since their enrolment, their parents and later the children themselves have undergone assessments and answered numerous questionnaires. Their contributions to these trials have created an outstanding resource about the consequences of enriched infant feeding during childhood. Findings suggest that enriched infant feeding affects brain growth and development. Now that the children are adults, our study will reactivate these "dormant trials" to see whether there are long-term effects on the brain. We will compare school achievement among participants who did and did not receive enriched feeding as infants. This will be done by linking information from the infant feeding trials with participants' school records, without contacting or identifying the participants.
By using anonymised, linked trial-school achievement data, we can maximise the value of the information that has already been collected from the participants and at the same time provide new answers to guide decisions about enriched infant feeding for today's children.