Study Design

How will we go about this?

Data held in several large national databases will be linked in order to investigate educational outcomes in children born following assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in England between 1992-2008. Our study has a number of important methodological strengths compared to existing studies: much larger size, follow-up of children throughout the full age range of school education in the UK (4 to 18 years), national coverage, and the inclusion of two control groups of naturally conceived children (siblings of ART children, and unrelated age, sex and school-matched controls).

Data linkage using existing national datasets is the least intrusive, most efficient, and only feasible methodology for adequately investigating this research question with a sufficiently large and representative sample size.  The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) database is a registry of all assisted conception cycles in the UK since 1992. HFEA maternal records will first be linked to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) birth records to obtain individual identifiers for children born following ART as well as their naturally conceived siblings. These cohorts will then be linked to the National Pupil Database (NPD) to establish educational outcomes. NPD contains detailed educational attainment data for all pupils in state schools and colleges in England, including test scores for national Key Stage assessments at fixed points during education between 5-18 years of age.