eprintid: 10205422 rev_number: 8 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/20/54/22 datestamp: 2025-02-28 10:08:30 lastmod: 2025-02-28 10:12:26 status_changed: 2025-02-28 10:08:30 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Baranyi, Gergő creators_name: Harron, Katie creators_name: Rajah, Nasir creators_name: Fitzsimons, Emla title: Self-reported psychological distress in childhood and mental health-related hospital attendance among young adults: a 12-year data linkage cohort study from England ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B16 divisions: B02 divisions: B14 divisions: J81 divisions: D13 divisions: G25 keywords: Adolescence; Cohort study; Administrative data; Mental health; Service use; Treatment gap note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. abstract: Purpose: Investigating the relationship between self-reported mental health and secondary care utilisation can provide evidence on the link between population-level common mental conditions and clinical care; however, cohort studies with linked administrative data are rare. We explored the link between self-reported mental health in adolescence and mental health-related hospital attendance in young adulthood. // Methods: Data from a nationally representative English cohort (Next Steps) were linked to NHS Hospital Episode Statistics. GHQ-12 assessed psychological distress in Next Steps at age 15; participants were followed up until their first mental health-related hospital presentations and outpatient treatments or were censored at the end of the study (age 27). Cox proportionate hazard models with survey weights estimated associations. // Results: Out of 4058 young people, 19% reported high levels of distress at age 15. During the 12-year follow-up, 5.3%, 2.9% and 2.7% of the participants had at least one mental disorder, drug/alcohol misuse and self-harm presentation, respectively, and 4.2% had a mental health treatment in NHS hospitals. Higher GHQ-12 scores were associated with mental disorder presentations (HR = 1.10, 95% CI:1.04–1.16), and mental health treatments (HR = 1.14, 95% CI:1.08–1.20). Associations for hospital treatments were weaker for young people living in deprived areas, or if their main parent had lower education. // Conclusion: Adolescent psychological distress is associated with subsequent hospital attendance in young adulthood, but there might be treatment gaps in service utilisation among more disadvantaged individuals. Detecting youth with mental health difficulties may facilitate early intervention, improve life-course outcomes, and ultimately reduce secondary healthcare use. date: 2025-02-18 date_type: published publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC official_url: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2363105 doi: 10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y medium: Print-Electronic pii: 10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y lyricists_name: Harron, Katie lyricists_name: Fitzsimons, Emla lyricists_name: Baranyi, Gergo lyricists_id: KLHAR48 lyricists_id: EOAFI22 lyricists_id: GBARA64 actors_name: Baranyi, Gergo actors_id: GBARA64 actors_role: owner funding_acknowledgements: ES/M001660/1, ES/W013142/1 [Economic and Social Research Council]; ES/V000977/1, ES/X000427/1, ES/X003663/1 [Economic and Social Research Council] full_text_status: public publication: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology event_location: Germany issn: 0933-7954 citation: Baranyi, Gergő; Harron, Katie; Rajah, Nasir; Fitzsimons, Emla; (2025) Self-reported psychological distress in childhood and mental health-related hospital attendance among young adults: a 12-year data linkage cohort study from England. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205422/1/s00127-025-02854-y%20%281%29.pdf