Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study

Overview

Respiratory infections are the main cause of hospital admission in preschool children. Preventing these infections will improve lifelong health and reduce healthcare costs.

We already know that cold, damp and mouldy homes are linked to respiratory problems, but for the first time, healthcare and housing data from across Scotland will be linked to gain a deeper understanding of what measures can be put in place. The study covers data for all children under five years-old in Scotland from 2008 to 2025. The research includes an investigation into different energy efficiency measures taken to make homes warmer, as without proper ventilation, some methods can increase indoor air pollution and mould risk.

The study will provide the first national estimates of how energy poverty, cold homes, and different retrofit approaches affect children’s respiratory health. This is a good example of how data can inform research for public benefit.

Who is involved?

Dr Livvy Swann, a paediatrician and data scientist based at the University of Edinburgh, is the Principal Investigator for this study. This major study is funded by The Wellcome Trust, and is a wider collaboration between multiple stakeholders including Scottish Government, UK Government Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, Public Health Scotland, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Energy Saving Trust, Poverty Alliance, Data Communications Company (smart meters), and Edinburgh Climate Change Institute.

The study has prioritised working with families across Scotland who have challenges in heating their homes. Members of this group helped to design the study questions, co-produced a short animation to raise awareness of the link between cold, damp homes and childhood infections, and shared their experiences through personal video stories.

The data

The study brings together health, housing and energy data about Scotland and its citizens. Using CHI-UPRN to link data, the study can connect children's health records to the homes they have lived in, creating new opportunities to understand how housing conditions affect health.

The development of CHI-UPRN, also known as CURL, was crucial to the realisation of this study.

Summarising the importance of CURL, Dr Swann said,

“I think it's hugely important from a policy perspective that we get as granular data as we possibly can. I like to think of the CURL file being like a washing line that you can peg different datasets on. You can do things that were never possible before.

“Because data is often so siloed, we don’t normally link up data from different areas, such as health, energy and housing. The ‘washing line’ had been missing. Once it was there, these wonderful opportunities emerged.”

The study links national health datasets, including birth and pregnancy records, hospital admissions, prescribing information, immunisation records and children’s health data, with detailed housing and energy datasets. These include the National Energy Efficiency Data (NEED), which provides information on household energy use, the Home Energy Efficiency Dataset (HEED), which records government-funded energy efficiency improvements, and data derived from Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).

By linking data at the property level rather than relying on postcode-based measures, this work can examine how the energy performance of individual homes, household energy usage, and retrofit interventions are associated with children's respiratory health.

How could this research help inform policies and improve lives?

This research fills a critical evidence gap on the impact of homes on children’s health and how home conditions drive health inequalities. The project aims to inform government policy on housing and climate, reduce respiratory illness, and promote health equity in the move towards net zero.

With new linkage methods like CHI-UPRN now available, responsibly combining health, housing, and environmental data offers unprecedented opportunities to design better policies.

But alongside technical progress, it is vital to embed lived experience throughout the process, ensuring that solutions are shaped by those most affected. The Healthy homes, healthy kids: Stakeholder 2025 meeting highlighted importance of meaningful engagement with communities experiencing these conditions. Training for doctors and other healthcare professionals on housing as a determinant of health was also identified as an essential step in improving outcomes for patients.

Research Data Scotland’s role

Research Data Scotland is working with data controllers and delivery partners to make more datasets available for research that benefits people living in Scotland. The Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study demonstrates the value of bringing together data from different sectors to answer important public policy questions.

Several of the housing and energy datasets used in this project are being prepared for use through the Scottish National Safe Haven, helping to create a pathway that can be reused by future researchers. By enabling secure access to linked data, Research Data Scotland is helping to support research that can improve health outcomes and inform evidence-based policy.