Prevalence of self-harm across urgent and emergency care settings among young people and factors associated with reattendance: protocol for a prospective cohort study

Introduction: Self-harm represents a significant public health concern and is a common reason for contact with urgent and emergency care (UEC) services among young people. Although young people frequently interact with multiple components of the urgent care system following self-harm, there is limited system-level evidence describing patterns of service use, transitions between services and repeat emergency department (ED) attendance. An improved understanding of how young people use UEC services after self-harm is needed to inform the design of more effective and appropriate care pathways.

Methods and analysis: This protocol describes a prospective cohort study using an extract from the Centre for URgent and Emergency care research database (CUREd+) research database, which comprises routinely collected, linked healthcare data from the National Health Service 111 (NHS 111), ambulance services, urgent care centres, walk-in centres and EDs across Yorkshire and the Humber, England. The study population will include young people aged ≤25 years presenting to UEC services between April 2019 and March 2022 with self-harm coded as the reason for attendance. Analyses will describe the prevalence of self-harm presentations across UEC settings, quantify the proportion of NHS 111 and ambulance contacts resulting in ED attendance within 24 hours and examine factors associated with ED reattendance at 3 and 12 months. Mixed-effects logistic regression models will be used to account for repeated attendances, confounding variables and temporal variation, including changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anticipated analysis period: January 2026–January 2027.

Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval has been granted by the University of Leeds (MREC 22-079 Amd1) and the University of Sheffield (Ref 068194). The CUREd+ research database operates under Research Ethics Committee approval (23/YH/0079) and Confidentiality Advisory Group approval (18/CAG/0126). Individual consent is not required as all data are pseudonymised at source. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and public-facing outputs coproduced with patient and public involvement groups.