Profile
Biography
Katherine is a doctoral fellow working in the department of health sciences at the university of York. Her PhD research is using quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders amongst children born early. Katherine also works on the neonatal unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary, as a specialty registrar.
Qualifications
- Post Graduate Diploma of Health Research
- Masters in Child Health
- Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
- MBChB Medicine
- BSc (Hons), Microbiology in Relation to Medicine
Research
Overview
Babies born more than 3 weeks before their due date (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) are called ‘preterm’. Babies born very preterm (before 32 weeks) often need extra care after birth and are at higher risk of problems with their development compared to full term babies. Very preterm children have clinic appointments until they are 2 years old, so any developmental problems are picked up early, which helps them receive the right treatment. Compared to babies born very preterm, there has been much less research into babies born closer to their due date. Babies born moderately preterm (32 to 33 weeks), late preterm (34 to 36 weeks) and early term (37 to 38 weeks) may also be at increased risk of developmental problems, but this is not known for certain. A lack of understanding about the difficulties faced by children born between 32 to 38 weeks means that their health needs might not be met.
If parents are worried about their child’s development, national guidelines recommend they contact their GP or health visitor. However, due to many different factors which may be linked to their social or ethnic background, parents may not always get help from health professionals.
What I plan to do:
- Determine what proportion of children born before full term have developmental problems
- Discover which groups of children born before full term are most likely to have developmental problems
- Talk to parents of children born before full term about their experience of healthcare.
How I plan to do it:
I will use data from the ‘Born in Bradford’ cohort study, which tracks the health of around 13,500 children. I will calculate how many children have developmental problems, and how many of these were born before full term. I will calculate which groups of children born before full term are most likely to have a developmental problem.
Then, I will explore parents’ experiences. Parents of children born before full term who are part of the Born in Bradford study will be asked whether they wish to participate in this additional research. The interview will include their experience of accessing healthcare and any problems they had when trying to get help for their child.
Research group(s)
