Recent research has suggested that as well as impacting our heart and lungs, air pollution may also affect our brains, particularly as we are developing in childhood. We have therefore expanded our data collection activities to include the CHILL: cognition study, which will further investigate the links between air pollution, cognitive development and mental health.
These activities include the children completing some puzzle-type games on tablet computers to measure brain functions such as memory, motor skills, and information processing.
We will also ask children to complete a questionnaire about their thoughts and feelings. The questionnaire is called the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression questionnaire and it is used routinely in research and clinical settings.
This questionnaire is not a diagnostic tool as it only gives a “snapshot” view of how a child is feeling. It can however be used to monitor mood over a period of time.
If you have any concerns about mental health, or our activities raise any questions from you or your child, please contact us at chill@qmul.ac.uk.
We also recommend the following websites and apps which may be helpful for managing mental health.