Louise Marryat

• PhD in Psychological Medicine, MA in Research Methods (distinction), BA (hons.) Politics and Sociology
• Research Associate at University of Edinburgh

Background The number of reported maternal mental health (MH) difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher than during the pre-pandemic period. Findings on the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and children’s developmental outcomes suggest lower scores on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) among children born during the COVID-19 pan...

Background Early child development sets the course for optimal outcomes across life. Increasing numbers of children worldwide are exposed to opioids in pregnancy and frequently live in environments associated with adverse developmental outcomes. Although multiple systematic reviews have been published in this area, they use different exposures and...

Introduction Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with a range of poor long-term health outcomes, including multimorbidity and chronic pain. Epidemiological evidence underpins much of this relationship; however, psychophysical testing methods, such as quantitative sensory testing (QST), may provide valuable insights into p...

As health data infrastructure improves, we have the opportunity to link increasing volumes of data in order to investigate important health problems. This is perhaps most pertinent when looking at the experiences and outcomes of our most disadvantaged groups, who are often invisible in data obtained through primary research. Whilst these data offer...

Background Problems in children’s early social and emotional development are likely to have major long-term consequences for the individual and society: maternal emotional well-being is associated with better outcomes. Interventions designed to improve both maternal mental health and the mother–child relationship are thus likely to benefit both mat...

Objective This scoping review will map the extent and type of evidence in relation to the association between maternal long term health conditions (LTCs), including multimorbidity, and child oral health. Introduction Newer theories are emerging that detail the many factors that can influence child oral health at child, family and community levels....

Background There is well-established evidence linking adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and chronic pain in adulthood. It is less clear how ACE exposure might influence the response to chronic pain treatment. In this systematic review, we synthesise the literature assessing the impact of ACE exposure on outcomes relating to the use, benefits, an...

Background The world is facing an opioid epidemic. Children of women who use opioids in pregnancy are difficult to follow-up over long periods using traditional research methods due to the complexity of their lives. Resultingly, we have little robust evidence on their longer-term outcomes. Objective This study aimed to explore the impact of illicit...

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been implicated in the aetiology of a range of health outcomes, including multimorbidity. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to identify, synthesise, and quantify the current evidence linking ACEs and multimorbidity. Methods We searched seven databases from inception to 20 Jul...

Background Previous research has linked prenatal maternal infections to later childhood developmental outcomes and socioemotional difficulties. However, existing studies have relied on retrospectively self‐reported survey data, or data on hospital‐recorded infections only, resulting in gaps in data collection. Methods This study used a large linke...

Background Universal health visiting has been a cornerstone of preventative healthcare for children in the United Kingdom (UK) for over 100 years. In 2016, Scotland introduced a new Universal Health Visiting Pathway (UHVP), involving a greater number of contacts with a particular emphasis on the first year, visits within the home setting, and rigor...

Background Prenatal infections are associated with childhood developmental outcomes such as reduced cognitive abilities, emotional problems and other developmental vulnerabilities. However, there is currently a lack of research examining whether this arises due to potential intermediary variables like low birth weight or preterm birth, or due to so...

Background: Prenatal infections are associated with childhood developmental outcomes such as reduced cognitive abilities, emotional problems and other developmental vulnerabilities. However, there is currently a lack of research examining whether this arises due to potential intermediary variables like low birthweight or preterm birth, or due to so...

Background Previous research has linked prenatal maternal infections to later childhood developmental outcomes and socioemotional difficulties. However, existing studies have relied on retrospectively self-reported survey data, or data on hospital-recorded infections only, resulting in gaps in data collection. Methods This study used a large linke...

Objectives Previous research suggests that prenatal maternal infections may be linked to later childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes and socioemotional difficulties. We exploited a large linked administrative health dataset to examine relationships between prenatal infections and early childhood development outcomes in Greater Glasgow & Clyde (GGC)...

Objectives Children of women who use substances are difficult to research at a population-level using traditional research methods due to the complexity of their lives. Resultingly, we have little robust evidence on their outcomes. This study developed an administrative data cohort of children exposed to opioids and explored health outcomes. Method...

Intellectual Disability is under-ascertained worldwide and is associated with greater physical and mental health difficulties. This research aimed to identify clinical features and characteristics of children with Intellectual Disability in a population of 126 6–18 year olds in mainstream school, attending paediatric developmental clinics. Intellec...

Measuring variation in childhood mental health supports the development of local early intervention strategies. The methodological approach used to investigate mental health trends (often determined by the availability of individual level data) can affect decision making. We apply two approaches to identify geographic trends in childhood social, em...

Objective To analyse the Growing Up in Scotland cohort for predictors of obesity at age 12, present at school entry (age 5–6). Methods The initial model included literature-based risk factors likely to be routinely collected in high-income countries (HICs), as well as “Adverse/Protective Childhood Experiences (ACEs/PCEs)”. Missing data were handle...

Background Developmental delay affects substantial proportions of children. It can generally be identified in the pre-school years and can impact on children’s educational outcomes, which in turn may affect outcomes across the life span. High income countries increasingly assess children for developmental delay in the early years, as part of univer...

Introduction The growing political emphasis on the early years reflects the importance of these formative years of life. Health visitors in the UK are uniquely positioned to improve health outcomes for children and families and to reduce health inequalities. Recently, there has been a policy change in Scotland in an attempt to enhance the delivery...

Objective To examine the association between high maternal weight status and complications during pregnancy and delivery. Setting Scotland. Participants Data from 132 899 first-time singleton deliveries in Scotland between 2008 and 2015 were used. Women with overweight and obesity were compared with women with normal weight. Associations between...

Sanders et al.'s proposal for a management framework for conflicting interests among program developers is very welcome. The underlying principles of such a framework must nevertheless prioritise the need for researchers and commissioners of services to make objective assessments of the impact of interventions reported in journal articles. This is...

Background with rationale Children born to opioid-dependent mothers are at a developmental disadvantage from pre-birth. They are additionally affected by the mother’s compromised ability to recognise and respond to the infant’s cues. Development is often compounded by environmental factors. Research to date has primarily focused on early infancy an...

Background: Preschool language and behavioural difficulties impact on multiple domains of the child's early life and can endure into adulthood, predicting poor educational, social and health outcomes. Highlighting risk factors associated with poor outcomes following language and behavioural difficulties raised in early childhood may facilitate ear...

Objectives To assess what proportion of the association between household low income and incidence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) would be eliminated if all households had access to housing, transportation and childcare services, breastfeeding counselling, and parks. Methods Using Growing Up in Scotland birth cohort data (N = 2816), an inv...

Background Preschool screening for developmental difficulties is increasingly becoming part of routine health service provision and yet the scope and validity of tools used within these screening assessments is variable. The aim of this review is to report on the predictive validity of preschool screening tools for language and behaviour difficulti...

PRISMA-DTA checklist. (DOCX)

Extracted data items. (DOCX)

Background and objectives Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with a range of poorer health and social outcomes throughout the life course; however, to date they have primarily been conducted retrospectively in adulthood. This paper sets out to determine the prevalence of ACEs at age 8 in a recent prospective birth cohort and...

Table S1: Variables selected for analysis Table S2: Recoding of frequency of SSB/ASB consumption Table S3: Recoding of BMI classifications to create binary variables for analysis Table S4: Equivalence scales for different members of the household Table S5: Recoding of maternal educational level variable Table S6: Recoding of physical activity categ...

There is increasing interest amongst researchers and policy makers in identifying the effect of public health interventions on health inequalities by socioeconomic status (SES). This issue is typically addressed in evaluation studies through subgroup analyses, where researchers test whether the effect of an intervention differs according to the soc...

Table S1. weight and BMI status by age, sex and cohort Table S2. Correlation matrix of weight and BMI at different ages. Values are Pearson correlations of Z scores, boys upper right, girls lower left

Objectives To investigate whether high weight in infancy predicts obesity in childhood. Method Data from two UK cohorts (Newcastle Growth and Development N = 795, Gateshead Millennium N = 393) and one Finnish (Tampere N = 1262) were combined. Z scores of weight at 3 and 12 months and body mass index (BMI) at 5 and 8 years were categorized as raise...

There has been a substantial amount of debate around the role of parental risk aversity in children's health and wellbeing, with results suggesting that, whilst in the short-term, parents may ensure their children's safety, in the longer-term, children's psychological well-being may be compromised, and a lack of activity may result in a range of ot...

Background A significant gap exists in longitudinal evidence on early exposure to artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) and weight outcomes for paediatric populations. Objective The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between ASB/sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption at 4–5 years and risk of overweight and obesity at 7–8...

Background This paper examines socioeconomic inequalities in mental health at school entry and explores changes in these inequalities over the first 3 years of school. Methods The study utilises routinely collected mental health data from education records and demographic data at ages 4 and 7 years, along with administrative school-level data. The...

Background The Triple P parenting programme has been reported to improve child mental health at population level, but it consumes substantial resources. Previous published work has suggested improvements in whole population scores in the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Total Difficulties Scale among samples of children following intr...

Objectives: The 2006 WHO growth charts were created to provide an international standard for optimal growth, based on healthy, breastfed populations, but it has been suggested that Northern European children fit them poorly. This study uses infant weight data spanning 50 years to determine how well-nourished preschool children from different eras...

Background Social, emotional and behavioural development in early to middle childhood impact upon many outcomes in future life and are influenced by home, neighbourhood and school environments. We used linked data to investigate differences between areas in Glasgow City in level of difficulties in pre-school age children, after consideration of dem...

Background Glasgow City has poorer adolescent and adult health outcomes in comparison to demographically similar cities in England and the rest of Scotland. Until now, little exploration of differences in child development between Glasgow and other areas has been made. The authors hypothesized that the poorer health outcomes and lifestyle behaviour...

The impact of peer relationships has been extensively reported during adolescence, when peer influence is generally considered to be at its greatest. Research on social isolation during childhood has found associations with school achievement, future relationships and adult mental health. Much of the evidence is derived from either parent or child-...

Background Child mental health problems have been linked to a variety of negative outcomes over the lifecourse. In recent years there has been a focus on exploring the development of mental health problems during childhood and adolescence. However, these analyses often use data from cohort studies, which suffer from differential attrition, and pare...

Aim Emotional and behavioural disorders in early childhood are related to poorer academic attainment and school engagement. In Scotland, most children attend an Early Years establishment from the age of three years prior to transferring to primary education around the age of five years. Initially piloted in 2010, the Strengths and Difficulties Ques...