Introducing the ORIGINS project: a community-based interventional birth cohort.

Objectives Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose the greatest threat to human health globally. The dramatic rise in early onset NCDs - such as childhood obesity, the allergy epidemic and an increasing burden of mental ill health in children and youth - reflect the profound early impact of modern environments on developing systems. The ORIGINS Project is a research platform enabling world class investigation of early antecedent pathways to NCDs, and how to curtail these.

Literacy and Numeracy Underachievement in Boys and Girls With ADHD.

To determine literacy and numeracy outcomes, among children with and without ADHD by gestational age and gender. De-identified linked population data from the Western Australian Monitoring of Drug Dependence Systems, Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment database, and the Midwives Notification System used information on 6,819 children with ADHD compared with 14,451 non-ADHD children. Twenty-three percent of boys and 28% of girls with ADHD had numeracy scores below the benchmark in School Year 3, compared with 11% of children without ADHD.

Contact with the juvenile justice system in children treated with stimulant medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a population study.

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most frequent neurodevelopmental disorder in children and is sometimes noted retrospectively in young people and adults who are incarcerated. We aimed to investigate juvenile justice encounters in children with and without ADHD.

Methods: Between January, 1995, and December, 2010, we did a population-based cohort study in Western Australia.

Literacy and Numeracy Underachievement in Boys and Girls With ADHD.

The aim was to determine literacy and numeracy outcomes, among children with and without ADHD by gestational age and gender. De-identified linked population data from the Western Australian Monitoring of Drugs of Dependence System and Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment databases, and the Midwives Notification System used information on 6,819 children with ADHD compared with 14,451 non-ADHD children. A total of 23% of boys and 28% of girls with ADHD had numeracy scores below the benchmark in School Year 3, compared with 11% of children without ADHD.

Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and their hospitalisations: population data linkage study.

Examine the hospital admission risk in young children who are subsequently diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We conducted a population-based, record linkage study. Records of all non-Aboriginal children under 18 years who met the DSMIV/ICD10 criteria for ADHD and prescribed stimulant medication in Western Australia between 2003 and 2007 (n = 11,902) were linked to two other health data systems-the hospital morbidity data system and the midwives notification system (MNS).

Off-label use of ondansetron in pregnancy in Western Australia.

Aims: Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy is the most common medical condition in pregnancy. There is an increasing trend to prescribe ondansetron although its safety for use in pregnancy has not been established.

Methods: Exposed pregnancies were all births in Western Australia, 2002-2005, where the mother was dispensed ondansetron under the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, compared with all other births during the same period.

Environmental risk factors by gender associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Background: Early environmental risk factors associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been increasingly suggested. Our study investigates the maternal, pregnancy, and newborn risk factors by gender for children prescribed stimulant medication for treatment of ADHD in Western Australia.

Methods: This is a population-based, record linkage case-control study.

Are women with major depression in pregnancy identifiable in population health data?

Background: Although record linkage of routinely collected health datasets is a valuable research resource, most datasets are established for administrative purposes and not for health outcomes research. In order for meaningful results to be extrapolated to specific populations, the limitations of the data and linkage methodology need to be investigated and clarified. It is the objective of this study to investigate the differences in ascertainment which may arise between a hospital admission dataset and a dispensing claims dataset, using major depression in pregnancy as an example.

Early morbidity and mortality following in utero exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: a population-based study in Western Australia.

Background: The early years of life have a profound effect on a child's developmental pathway. The children born to mothers suffering from depression may be at risk of increased morbidity and mortality in the first years of life.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the hospital admissions and mortality of children whose mothers were dispensed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) during their pregnancy.

Dispensing patterns and pregnancy outcomes for women dispensed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in pregnancy.

Background: The safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to investigate dispensing patterns and pregnancy outcomes for women dispensed an SSRI in pregnancy.

Methods: Using data linkage of population-based health datasets from Western Australia and a national pharmaceutical claims dataset, our study included 123,405 pregnancies from 2002 to 2005.

Linking a pharmaceutical claims database with a birth defects registry to investigate birth defect rates of suspected teratogens.

Purpose: Data linkage of population administrative data is being investigated as a tool for pharmacovigilance in pregnancy in Australia. Records of prescriptions of known or suspected teratogens dispensed to pregnant women have been linked to a birth defects registry to determine if defects associated with medicine exposure can be detected.

Methods: The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a national claims database that has been linked with population-based data to extract linkages for women with a pregnancy event in Western Australia from 2002 to 2005 (n = 106 074).

Twins born following assisted reproductive technology: perinatal outcome and admission to hospital.

Background: Compared with spontaneously conceived (SC) singletons, adverse perinatal outcome, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission and hospital admission in infancy are more common in those born following Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Similar comparisons for twins have shown conflicting results.

Methods: We investigated perinatal outcome and hospital admission during the first 3 years of life for all twin children born in Western Australia between 1994 and 2000 [700 ART, 4097 SC].

A retrospective population-based study of childhood hospital admissions with record linkage to a birth defects registry.

Background: Using population-based linked records of births, deaths, birth defects and hospital admissions for children born 1980-1999 enables profiles of hospital morbidity to be created for each child.

Methods: This is an analysis of a state-based registry of birth defects linked to population-based hospital admission data. Transfers and readmissions within one day could be taken into account and treated as one episode of care for the purposes of analyses (N = 485,446 children; 742,845 non-birth admissions).

Pharmacovigilance in pregnancy using population-based linked datasets.

Purpose: National dispensing data for subsidized prescription medicines have recently been approved for linkage to the population-based health datasets in Western Australia (WA), creating the capacity to study how these medicines are used and their impact on pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: Pregnancy events were identified in the Hospital Morbidity Data System from 2002 to 2005 (N = 164,278 admissions; N = 98,265 women) and linked to the midwives' notification system (MNS), the registry of births and deaths, the Western Australian birth defects registry and the pharmaceutical benefit scheme. Dispensing records were extracted for each pregnancy event (N = 1,276,084 dispenses).

Admission to hospital of singleton children born following assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Background: Adverse perinatal outcomes are more common in singletons born following assisted reproductive technology (ART) and this would predict an increase in hospitalization during infancy and early childhood.

Methods: We investigated hospital admissions during the first 3 years of life for all singleton children born in Western Australia between 1994 and 2000 [1328 ART, 162 350 spontaneously conceived (SC)].

Results: ART infants had a significantly longer birth admission and were four times more likely to be admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) than SC infants.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in nonindigenous west Australian women.

Background: High alcohol intake in pregnancy has been linked to abnormal fetal development. There are limited published data in Australia on standard drinks of alcohol consumed on a typical occasion during the periconceptional period or pregnancy.

Methods: During 1995 to 1997, a 10% random sample of all nonindigenous women giving birth in Western Australia was surveyed 12 weeks after delivery (N=4,839).

Correlation between clinical severity in patients with Rett syndrome with a p.R168X or p.T158M MECP2 mutation, and the direction and degree of skewing of X-chromosome inactivation.

Introduction: Rett syndrome (RTT) is an X-linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder that is usually associated with mutations in the MECP2 gene. The most common mutations in the gene are p.R168X and p.

Health service use in Rett syndrome.

Rett syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder affecting girls, caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. There are no population-based data on the extent and determinants of health service use in this disorder. The population-based registry, the Australian Rett Syndrome database, was the source of phenotype data.

Hand preference, extent of laterality, and functional hand use in Rett syndrome.

Residual hand use in functional tasks, extent of laterality, and right or left preference were studied in 145 2- to 24-year-old, postregression Australian subjects with Rett syndrome via parent questionnaire. Hand use was markedly restricted, more for complex than simple and for external (touching food and objects) than internal tasks (scratching, rubbing eyes), suggesting a deficit in cerebral control of external, goal-oriented hand use, which is perhaps genetically determined because there is significantly greater restriction of external tasks in subjects with demonstrated MECP2 mutations. Overall, 33.