Bradford

The study in Bradford had three key components: analysis of the Born in Bradford 1000 (BiB1000) survey data; interviews and focus groups with food aid providers and public health professionals; and focus groups with women in or at risk of food insecurity. I discuss each in turn.

Survey sample

Born in Bradford study

Born in Bradford (BiB), a prospective birth cohort study, was established in 2007 in response to concerns about the high infant mortality rate in Bradford compared with other UK cities, and high levels of childhood morbidity, including congenital anomalies and childhood disability (Small, 2012; Wright et al, 2012). The study recruited pregnant women (and their partners) at the Bradford Royal Infirmary. Women were recruited from the maternity unit between March 2007 and December 2010 as they attended the clinic for an oral glucose tolerance test, routinely offered to all pregnant women in Bradford between 26 and 28 weeks’ gestation. All babies born to these mothers and all fathers were eligible to participate; mothers were only excluded if they planned to move away from Bradford before the end of their pregnancy. Over 80 per cent of the women invited for the study accepted the offer to participate. Ethical approval for the data collection was granted by Bradford Leeds NHS Research Ethics Committee (Ref 07/ H1302/ 112). Table A1 provides baseline characteristics for the mothers in the sample. As demonstrated with t-tests and Pearson chi-square tests in Table A1, differences between Pakistani and White British mothers (as collectives) are statistically significant.

The BiB1000 study

BiB1000 is a nested cohort of the BiB birth cohort. It was established in 2008 in response to evidence gaps in knowledge regarding the impact of exposures during pregnancy and early life, especially among South Asian children (Bryant et al, 2013). All mothers recruited to the full BiB study between August 2008 and March 2009, who had completed the baseline questionnaire, were approached to take part in the BiB1000 study during their routine 26– 28-week glucose tolerance test. A sample size of 1,080 was calculated based upon the statistical ability to detect a difference in infantgrowth of 0.67 z-scores in weight at age over one year, and allowing for a 5 per cent annual attrition (Bryant et al, 2013).