The 4th International Conference on Administrative Data Research brought together over 350 delegates from the UK and across the globe. The Conference which was held in Cardiff from the 9th – 11th December, focused on national and international population data science initiatives.
From keynote speakers, individual presentations and workshops to rapid-fire sessions, the conference offered a jam-packed 3-day programme. The event brought together experts from across the world to share their research and best practice, and to open up new opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Several researchers from Population Data Science attended the conference to present their latest research work and findings. We caught up with some of our team at the conference so they could share their experiences and their conference takeaways.
Michaela James, Researcher (NCPHWR)
Project: The ACTIVE Project
Title of presentation: Using GIS to explore the impact of teenager’s environments on this physical activity, fitness and motivation: a cross-sectional study using data from the ACTIVE Randomised Control Trial.
What challenge does your research tackle?
My research tackles the challenge of physical inactivity in young people, particularly between the ages of 13 – 14. Many teenagers are not meeting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) a day. In Wales, research shows that only 11% of girls and 20% of boys are doing enough despite the psychological and physical benefits of an active lifestyle.
What were your key findings which you presented at the Conference?
Analysis showed the school environment plays a pivotal role in physical activity. Public transport and natural resources needed to be closer to schools to positively impact activity. More affluent pupils were more motivated to be active and higher motivation was associated with closer active travel and natural resource to schools. Interestingly ACTIVE found that, as PA improves, sedentary time increases.
What impact might your research have nationally / globally?
This study highlights the importance of the school setting in improving MVPA and fitness for teenagers. Access to public transport, active travel infrastructure, access to green space and bringing activities that teenagers want and need closer to schools could make a significant difference to teenage health. Therefore, policy-makers/planning committees need to consider these provisions when designing teenage friendly environments namely, creating opportunities for teenagers to walk/cycle independently to activity provision around their homes and schools. There is a real need to include teenagers in the planning of cities, which this research highlights.
What have been your takeaways from speaking and attending the conference?
The ADR Conference was a great opportunity to present my research to those outside of my normal audience and to network with those with a more data driven background. This gave me a lot to think about in terms of the future direction of this study and the data I have collected.
Gareth Davies, Research Analyst and Data Scientist
Project: Acute Kidney Injury Alerts and Outcomes in Wales
Title of presentation: Defining Acute Kidney Injury Episodes
What challenge does your research tackle?
The study aims to validate the Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) alert system in Wales, by coding into SQL the NHS England ‘eAlert’ algorithm which is based on the current ‘KDIGO’ definition for AKI. Using 4 proposed methods of defining an episode of AKI, we aim to describe these episodes for patients in secondary care in Wales, and also remove dialysis patients from the analysis as these may give false positives. The study uses Welsh pathology lab data held in the SAIL Databank at Population Data Science, and is a collaboration between NHS Wales renal clinicians and the Welsh Kidney Research Unit.
What were your key findings which you presented at the Conference?
The NHS England ‘eAlert’ was successfully recreated using SQL and applied to the pathology data within SAIL to generate AKI alerts. We were able to accurately identify and remove dialysis patients. By adjusting the definition of an AKI episode following an alert, we see a variation in the number of AKI episodes that a patient experiences.
What impact might your research have nationally / globally?
From clinical experience it is suspected that dialysis patients are having electronic alerts i.e. false positives. Lab staff try and suppress dialysis patients by suppressing alerts in patients under renal physicians. This then leads to false negatives as renal physicians also look after patients with AKI, and often those with the most severe AKI. However, bodies such as the UK renal registry are using this output for research. So once an accurate AKI cohort can be described from this study, this can be used to define a gold standard for AKI in future analysis.
What have been your takeaways from speaking and attending the conference?
I found the process of preparing and delivering a talk a useful focus for delivering outputs for the project, and public speaking useful in developing the skill of communicating these outputs. More generally, I thought the breadth of topics and expertise of colleagues on display at the conference was highly impressive. I enjoyed the learning experience and took a lot of notes during the talks. The venue, staff and catering were all excellent. I also really enjoyed re-learning the Rubik’s cube during the competition!
Dan Thompson and Amy Mizen, Research Officers
Title of presentation: Co-producing a typology for Green and Blue spaces for a longitudinal, national dataset of Green and Blue spaces
What challenge does your research tackle?
Overall, the aim of the Green-Blue Spaces Study is to investigate whether a change in access to the natural environment (such as parks, woodlands or beaches) has an impact on people’s mental health. This change may be because a person moves home, or the land-use around their home changes (a new park may open or a housing estate may be built on fields).
At the conference, we presented about our typology of Green and Blue spaces that we co-produced with Local and National Government and third sector charities. This work addresses the problem that policy, practice and academic studies define GBS differently.
What were your key findings which you presented at the Conference?
Our typology is academically rigorous and brings in views from policy makers and urban planners. We have defined GBS in a way that will enable us to translate our results in to useable information for policy and practice. Ultimately resulting in planners investing in and policy promoting specific GBS that support mental health and wellbeing.
What impact might your research have nationally / globally?
At the end of the project, we will provide evidence for key health and environmental policies (for example when building new housing) about which green and blue spaces are most important for different groups of people to support good mental health and well-being. There is also a high cultural value associated to natural environments, our results will support arguments to protect and enhance this resource.
What have been your takeaways from speaking and attending the conference?
A large chunk of our work on the project is related to mental health. We were intrigued by the wide variety of approaches used, methods applied and mental health related insights derived all from pretty similar data. It’s not always about the data you have, but what you can do with it. Also, to not be afraid to stick your head out and ask to collaborate on data for the purpose of public good.