Data collection

The National Obesity Audit (NOA) information asset will not collect any additional data from providers, but instead will re-use (analyse and link) data which is already collected by NHS England for NOA purposes

All weight management services (WMS) and interventions (interventions where weight loss, maintenance of healthy weight, or decrease rate of weight gain, is a primary aim) in England. Including services currently commissioned in Tiers 2, 3 and 4 (including pregnancy-related).

All children and adults with a Body Mass Index (BMI) / weight and height / centiles recorded within any nationally collected dataset that captures body weight or growth parameters.

Universally available/ coded interventions classified as Tier 1 will be included where able to provide person-level data that are: NHS or Local Authority commissioned, and all publicly funded private and voluntary weight management services.

Geographical coverage

a. England

Exclusions

a. There are currently no service or service user exclusion criteria.

 b. The development of any patient experience measure or direct collection of any patient experience data is excluded at this stage on the basis that it is unclear whether there are any relevant, validated methods of data collection which are likely to be beneficial.

c. Undertaking work to develop any new patient reported outcome measures (PROMS) is explicitly excluded at this point in time. (Note that where there are existing validated PROMS or patient reported outcomes that are consistently used within clinical practice these may be considered for inclusion within the NOA).

To avoid burden on the healthcare system the audit will analyse and link data which NHS England already holds as a Controller under the UK GDPR, rather than collect bespoke data. It is expected that the audit will analyse and link the following key data sources:

1. Data from general practices which is collected via the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention (CVDPrevent) Audit (CVDP) through the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) under the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit Directions 2020² . Data used in NOA will be for people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) / weight and height/ centiles recorded or who have been referred to a weight management service or attended a weight management intervention. The NHS England audit team, CVDP team and GPES team have worked together and the CVDP collection will take place automatically according to the existing defined schedule. GP data will also be retrieved for any new relevant people identified from the Community Services Dataset or the Hospital Episode Statistics

2. Community Services Dataset (CSDS)³ collected under the Community Services Dataset Directions 20203 in order to collect data from Tier 2 and 3 weight management services commissioned by the NHS and local authorities. This includes data from private providers who have been publicly funded to deliver these services. Data used in NOA will be for people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) values or status, or weight and height measurements, or who have been referred to a weight management service or attended a weight management service or attended a weight management intervention. GP data will be retrieved for any new people identified in this way.

3. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)/Admitted Patient Care (APC) data collected under the Spine Services (No.2) 2014 Directions⁴ to collect data relating to Tier 4 obesity related bariatric surgery interventions. This includes data from private providers where procedures have been funded by the NHS. GP data will be retrieved for any new people identified in this way

4. Other data sources NHS England holds where there is a clear lawful basis for the linkage and it meets the purpose of the NOA.

Full details of the data to be analysed and linked and codes can be found in the National Obesity Audit Dataset Specification. 

For each data source NHS England will also access all relevant and available historical data.

The processing of both identifiable patient level data and aggregate data, which is held by NHS England.

The data to be used is described in the NOA Dataset Specification. The data used has been minimised to ensure data on each individual is kept to a minimum.

This is an ongoing collection and will use existing data collection frequencies via HES, CSDS and GPES. This data will be combined to create an NOA asset which will be updated quarterly.