The Bradford clean air zone was introduced after social science research showed that air pollution was impacting residents’ health.
Summary
Born in Bradford is one of the world’s largest research studies, tracking the lives of over 40,000 people living in Bradford to find out what influences the health and wellbeing of families in the area. Evidence from the programme has led to many evidence-based changes and interventions in the city including investing millions of pounds in improving urban green spaces and establishing a clean air zone in the city.
Born in Bradford: building a healthier, happier future for local communities
“This is all about how we can improve the services within our city and how we can make things better for families.”
Professor Rosie McEachan Director, Born in Bradford
The challenge
Born in Bradford is one of the world’s largest research studies, tracking the lives of over 40,000 people living in Bradford to find out what influences the health and wellbeing of families in the area.
The study began in 2007 as a response to poor health outcomes in children in the city. Bradford has pockets of high deprivation, with over a third of Bradford residents being in the most deprived category of the indices of multiple deprivation in England.
Working closely with stakeholders, health professionals and local communities, the programme aims to disentangle the factors that keep some families healthy and those that do not, with the ambition to applying health interventions and working with policymakers to improve the wellbeing of local communities.
Hear more from Rosie about the research and impact of the Born in Bradford programme by listening to our We Society podcast.
The research
Between 2007 and 2011, around 12,500 pregnant women were recruited when they attended their routine maternity care at the Bradford Royal Infirmary. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about different aspects of their lives including demographics information, physical and mental health and socio-economic information, and asked for consent for routine data linkage for themselves and their children to health and education data. As a result, the study has linked health data for 98% of the cohort participants and linked education data for 84% of the cohort participants. In addition, the Born in Bradford study has biobank, metabolomic and genomic data for proportions of its participant cohort, allowing researchers to take an holistic view of the participants’ health and wellbeing.
Amongst the 12,500 families, approximately 45% are of South Asian heritage and approximately 40% are of white British heritage, enabling the study to look at ethnic differences in a more nuanced way. The team follow up with all the families regularly and use their findings to help decision makers implement evidence-based changes to improve health and wellbeing in the city and beyond.
Born in Bradford has several studies alongside the family study described above. The birth cohort study continues to track the health of over 13,500 children, and their parents, in an effort to understand how different factors including how family, genes, the local environment and services come together to affect overall health and wellbeing. In addition, BiB Age of Wonder is a seven-year project capturing the journey through adolescence and adulthood for all teenagers in Bradford.
“This is the process of working with our communities, working with our stakeholders and building capacity in Bradford and slowly over time improving what’s happening in the city and the life chances [of the community].”
Professor Rosie McEachan Director, Born in Bradford
The impact
The Born in Bradford programme has led to many evidence-based changes and interventions by decision-makers in the city to help improve the health and wellbeing of its residents. Evidence from the programme has led to millions of pounds worth of investment in improving urban green spaces across the city, after it was found that families living in greener areas have children born with healthier births weights, have reduced risks of depression in pregnant women, and have better mental wellbeing in children aged 4, but that access to green space in Bradford was not equal.
In other areas of their research, findings from the team showed that air pollution was associated with poor growth of babies in the womb, higher blood pressure in children and poorer brain development, and had suggested that air pollution could be a factor in 35% of visits to GPs with breathing issues and 49% of visits to A&E. This evidence directly contributed to one of the most ambitious clean air zones in the UK with over £30 million in funding to support the transition to less polluting vehicles. Recent research from the Born in Bradford team has shown that one year after the launch of the clean air zone in the city, GPs were seeing nearly 600 fewer respiratory patients on average each month. The estimated cost savings to the NHS of reducing these GP visits could be more than £30,000 per month.
Other interventions which have resulted from the Born in Bradford programme include: the Better Start Bradford programme which has identified the services which are most useful in helping families with their health and wellbeing in the first few years of a child’s life; and the programme’s genetic research has identified promising targets for drug development to tackle disabling metabolic and skin diseases.
“The Clean Air Zone is proving that we can improve air quality and our residents are staying healthier as a result.”
Susan Hinchliffe Bradford Council leader