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.
(In press).
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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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Location: | Germany |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-025-02854-y |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | 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/. |
| Keywords: | Adolescence; Cohort study; Administrative data; Mental health; Service use; Treatment gap |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205422 |
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