All Ireland Traveller Health Study Our Geels - Department of Health ...

All Ireland Traveller Health Study
The NLSC/GUI study has contributed some of the most recent data on child health indicators for
comparison with AITHS. NLSC/GUI is a large, prospective cohort study which to date has gathered
baseline data on two subgroups: 9-month old infants and 9-year-old children. For this study, the
data relating to the 9-year-old (n=8,570) were compared with the 9-year-old in AITHS, with specific
comparisons being made with the NLSC/GUI children in SC 5-6, or to those in the lowest quintile of
family income. Data were collected both from the parents, and from the children themselves (in the
case of the 9-year-old). Where relevant in this paper, it is clarified whether the data were by child or
parent-report. Data tables have kindly been provided by Professor James Williams of the Economic and
Social Research Institute (ESRI), and other data has been gathered from the NLSC main report (Williams
et al., 2009).
The Continuous Household Survey is a yearly survey carried out by the Northern Ireland Statistics and
Research Agency (NISRA). It samples 1% of the NI households, and gathers information on a number
of household factors: population, housing, employment, health and education. Data is available by
household income and by employment skill set of the household. In this document, where specific
comparisons are made between the NI data and the AITHS data, the default comparison is between the
AITHS data and the general Continuous Household Survey data. In cases where the comparisons are
made with the NI data relating to semi skilled or unskilled workers only (comparable with the CSO SC
5-6 grouping), this is specified.
Analysis Strategy
All publications of the most significant recent population surveys (Kelleher et al., 2003; Morgan et al.,
2007; Williams et al., 2009; O’Mahony et al., 2007; INSIGHT ’07 (2008), Nic Gabhann et al., 2007; Kelly et
al., 2009; Krieger et al., 2005) were accessed and data were abstracted. To access data specific to either
the medical card holders or the SC 5-6 groups of the general population, raw data was also required
from a number of studies. Raw data files were accessed for the Lifeways study, INSIGHT ‘07 and the
SLAN 2002 and 2007 studies. In the case of the latter 3 studies, the data was received through the
ISSDA. Investigators from the HBSC, NLSC/GUI and SLAN 2007 studies kindly made either raw data
or study-specific tables available for comparison, and we acknowledge their assistance. Further data
relating to the general population in Northern Ireland were obtained from both the NI Continuous
Household Survey (2008-2009) and the 2005 Infant Feeding Survey (Bolling et al., 2007). We specifically
refer to the work of Professor Nancy Krieger in Harvard School of Public Health in Boston because she
is a world authority on the relative contribution of race, ethnicity and minority community affiliation to
health, an under–researched but relevant topic for Traveller health. Frequencies are presented as valid
percentages in all cases. All data are presented as descriptive statistics. Where possible, tabulations
were performed by sex and by age group, in keeping with the presentation of the AITHS data. Because
of the sample size and the large number of variables for consideration, no formal statistical testing of
hypotheses was undertaken as part of this comparative description.
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