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What is possible?

Administrative datasets have near-complete population coverage which allows researchers to capture hard-to-reach groups and generate more representative evidence. These data sets can be linked with others and are often longitudinal, meaning they can track change over time. They hold enormous potential for answering key questions about the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN of pressing heath, economic, and social issues, and understanding how to ask the right questions of the data is vital to producing high-quality outputs.

While NI has a robust administrative data infrastructure, we know surprisingly little about how the evidence generated travels over time. Researchers often hold assumptions about how their findings might be used by those best positioned to enact change — but are these assumptions correct? When stakeholders who support those with ADHD have access to these findings, how are they able to use them?

How will the SET-WG project apply this approach?

Using the “4W’s model” and asking 4 simple questions of the data, the project team will be able to explore the underlying impact of the experiences of young people affected by ADHD in NI in a variety of contexts.

  • WHO are the young people prescribed ADHD medication? What are their sociodemographic & household characteristics?
  • WHAT are they experiencing? What are their long-term employment, education, health & psychotropic medication outcomes?
  • WHERE do these patterns emerge? Are there specific LGDs where prescribing is highest? What trusts have the highest prescribing rates?
  • WHEN do impacts occur? At what ages do young people begin to be prescribed ADHD medication?

Translating output to impact

Exploring ADHD administrative data has multiple applications for the stakeholder organisations involved in supporting those affected by ADHD in NI, with a direct service impact on the individuals.

  • Strengthen advocacy: identifying hidden or underserved groups, providing credible evidence for advocacy efforts, empowering individuals and communities to self-advocate, and ensuring services reflect real-world needs
  • Support strategic aims: determining whether strategic aims are being met, aligning priorities with demonstrated need, supporting strategic planning, and monitoring outcomes to assess impact of decisions
  • Tailor & target services/resources: Identifying where resources should be allocated, identifying priority groups for allocating resources, identifying timing for resource allocation
  • Inform policy: Supporting development of evidence-informed, NI-specific policies, identifying gaps or inconsistencies in existing policy, and strengthening cases of prevention and early intervention
  • Funding: Supporting the case for sustaining services via robust population-level evidence, supporting early intervention/prevention efforts, benchmarking against counterpart nations where comparable data exists, targeting investment by need/vulnerable subgroups or specific areas

Project themes & values

The SET-WG project was designed with several themes and values in mind. Research should be undertaken to provide both immediate and lasting benefit to the population through findings and impact on future research, practice, and policy. This project is being conducted to espouse:

  • Enabling public trust
  • Supporting transparency on administrative data use
  • Demonstrating accountability
  • Providing a lasting repository for all reports, findings, documents, and presentation
  • Acting as a reference point for similar research and replication
  • Supporting dissemination beyond academic audiences

The data

The data we have used to inform this project was derived from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study. The help provided by the staff of the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS) and the NILS Research Support Unit is acknowledged. The NILS is funded by the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency (HSC R&D Division) and NISRA. The NILS-RSU is funded by the ESRC and the Northern Ireland Government. The authors alone are responsible for the interpretation of the data and any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of NISRA/NILS. The Honest Broker Service data has been supplied for the sole purpose of this project. All content uploaded under reports and presentations have received final output clearance from NISRA.