The CHOOSE study (CHOOSE - Children and young people psychiatric diagnoses before and during the Covid-19 pandemic) was funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR), with collaboration across Keele University, The Universities of Manchester and Exeter and the mental health research charity The McPin Foundation.
The study was conducted using a database of anonymised primary care electronic health records (CPRD – Clinical Practice Research Datalink) of over 9 million patients aged 10-24 years from 1881 general practices in the UK.
The research team worked closely with young people, carer, family advisory group (supported by McPin) as well as a clinical advisory group; both groups shaped the research questions and offered explanations on the initial findings.
The research team tracked the number of eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm recorded monthly by GPs from January 2010 through March 2022, around ten years before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and two years after its start. The analysis showed that since March 2020, eating disorders were 42% higher than would be expected based on previous trends for females aged 13-16, and 32% higher for those aged 17-19 years.
They held a webinar in May 2023 at which the key findings were presented. The webinar was illustrated by Tom Bailey.
The first paper was published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
The research team have worked with a young people’s group to produce a video for young people and parents to highlight how to get support for mental health problems. Do feel free to disseminate this video freely.
Output from School for Primary Care Research CHOOSE study (Project 566).
Project resources
There are a number of infographics and resources available from the McPin Foundation website: Go to resources