Data News
In this edition:
- New Reports Published from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS)
- ISD Scotland publish new health statistics
- Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)
New Reports Published from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS)
Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) is the longitudinal research study tracking the lives of 8,000 Scottish children and their families from birth through to the teenage years. Five new reports using data from the first four years of GUS were published recently on the following topics:
- The circumstances of persistently poor children
- Health inequalities in the early years
- Maternal mental health and its impact on child behaviour and devlopment
- Children's social, emotional and behavioural characteristics at entry to primary school
- Impact of the home learning environment on child cognitive development
To download the reports or summary findings please visit the GUS website.
Data from the first three 'sweeps' of data collection are available from the UK Data Archive, with Sweep 4 data to follow soon. data documentation, including copies of the questionnaires can be downloaded from the GUS website 'Using GUS data' page.
If you are using GUS data or plan to use GUS to inform your research please contact:
Lesley Kelly
GUS Dissemination Officer
CRFR, University of Edinburgh
lesley.kelly@ed.ac.uk
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ISD Scotland publish health statistics
New statistics published by ISD Scotland on the following topics:
- Childhood Immunisations (released on 24th June 2010)
- Hospital Standardised Mortality Ration - Quarterly Statistics (released 21st June 2010)
- Abortions 2009 (released on 25th May 2010)
- Breastfeeding 2009 (released 25th May 2010)
- NHS Smoking Cessation Service Statistics - Scotland 2009 (released 25th May 2010)
- Waiting Times - up to 31 March 2010 (released 25th May 2010)
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Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is the Scottish Government's official tool for identifying small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across Scotland. It is relevant for the targeting of policies and resources aimed at tackling areas where there are concentrations of multiple deprivation. The SIMD provides a relative ranking for each of 6,505 small areas, or datazones, across Scotland. It ranks these areas from 1, being the most deprived, to 6,505 being the least deprived.
The SIMD is one measure of deprivation and takes the approach that deprivation is multi-dimensional. As a result, it uses data relating to multiple aspects of life in order to gain the fullest picture possible of deprivation across Scotland. The SIMD consists of data from seven different subject areas or domains - Income, Employment, Health, Education, Geographic Access, Housing and Crime. The data from these domains are combined to produce an index that shows how deprived an area is in relation to all the other areas in Scotland.
Three versions of the SIMD have been produced to date with the most recent - SIMD 2009 - having been published in October 2009. The publication as well as background data, an interactive mapping facility, a detailed description of the methodology etc can be found on the SIMD website.
