Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026
07:31
Implementation of a Real-Time Psychosis Risk Detection and Alerting System Based on Electronic Health Records using CogStack
Published on: May 15, 2020
Mortality Risk Between Ages 11 and 22 Years Among Young People With Neurodisability in England: A National Cohort
Louise Macaulay1, Jennifer Saxton2, Tamsin Ford2
1Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
|July 9, 2026
Summary
Young people with neurodisability face significantly higher mortality risks between ages 11-22. This increased risk, primarily from medical causes, highlights a critical vulnerability during the transition to adult healthcare services.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatric Neurology
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Mortality risk escalates from childhood through early adulthood.
- Young individuals with neurodisability (neurological conditions causing functional limitations) are particularly vulnerable during the transition from pediatric to adult services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate all-cause and cause-specific mortality risk in young people aged 11-22 in England.
- To compare mortality risk between individuals with and without neurodisability during this age range.
Main Methods:
- A national cohort study utilizing linked health and education records (ECHILD) from ages 11 to 22.
- Neurodisability identified from pre-age 11 hospital records and supplemented with education data for intellectual disability and autism.
- Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox models used for gender-specific mortality risk estimation; competing-risks methods for cause-specific risk.
Main Results:
- Among over 3.6 million young people, 4.0% had neurodisability, accounting for 24% of the 5565 deaths between ages 11-22.
- By age 22, cumulative mortality risk was substantially higher for females (1.6%) and males (1.3%) with neurodisability compared to peers (0.14% and 0.28%, respectively).
- Medical causes predominated deaths among those with neurodisability, with significantly elevated risks observed in both genders.
Conclusions:
- Young people with neurodisability exhibit a markedly increased mortality risk between ages 11-22 compared to their peers.
- The elevated risk is predominantly driven by medical causes, with notable variations across genders and specific neurodisability subgroups.
- Findings underscore the heightened vulnerability of young people with neurodisability during critical healthcare transitions.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Life Tables
A life table is a statistical tool that summarizes the mortality and survival patterns of a population, providing detailed insights into the likelihood of survival or death across different age intervals within a cohort. By organizing data on survival probabilities and mortality rates, life tables offer a clear snapshot of population dynamics over time. They are extensively used in demography, public health, actuarial science, and ecology to analyze life expectancy, design health interventions,...
01:20Actuarial Approach
The actuarial approach, a statistical method originally developed for life insurance risk assessment, is widely used to calculate survival rates in clinical and population studies. This method accounts for participants lost to follow-up or those who die from causes unrelated to the study, ensuring a more accurate representation of survival probabilities.
Consider the example of a high-risk surgical procedure with significant early-stage mortality. A two-year clinical study is conducted,...
Consider the example of a high-risk surgical procedure with significant early-stage mortality. A two-year clinical study is conducted,...
02:20Longitudinal Research
Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...
01:22Applications of Life Tables
Life tables are versatile across various fields, providing a quantitative basis for analyzing mortality and survival rates. Whether used by demographers, actuaries, epidemiologists, or sociologists, life tables offer valuable insights into the dynamics of life and death, facilitating informed decisions in public health, insurance, conservation, and beyond. Their broad applicability highlights the interconnectedness of demographic data with practical outcomes in everyday life and strategic...
01:11Hazard Rate
The hazard rate, also known as the hazard function or failure rate, is a statistical measure used to describe the instantaneous rate at which an event occurs, given that the event has not yet happened. From a probabilistic perspective, it represents the likelihood that a subject will experience the event in a very small time interval, conditional on surviving up to the beginning of that interval. In terms of frequency, the hazard rate can be viewed as the ratio of the number of events to the...
01:12Relative Risk
Relative risk (RR) is a statistical measure commonly used in epidemiology to compare the likelihood of a particular event occurring between two groups. This metric is important for evaluating the relationship between exposure to a specific risk factor and the probability of a particular outcome. It plays a crucial role in medical research, public health studies, and risk assessment. Relative risk quantifies how much more (or less) likely an event is to occur in an exposed group compared to an...