biology

National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit

National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit rather than just read about it. In short: The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a multi-disciplinary research unit within the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health at Oxford University. It is located in the Richard Doll Building on the Old Road Campus, in Headington, east Oxford, England.

Key takeaways

National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a multi-disciplinary research unit within the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health at Oxford University. It is located in the Richard Doll Building on the Old Road Campus, in Headington, east Oxford, England. The unit's work involves randomized controlled trials, national surveillance programs and surveys and other research on maternal and infant health and care in the perinatal period (before, during and after birth). The early work of the NPEU in developing a register of perinatal trials and methods for synthesizing their results lay the foundations for the Cochrane Collaboration.

Activities The mission of the NPEU is "...to produce methodologically rigorous research evidence to improve the care provided to women and their families during pregnancy, childbirth, the newborn period and early childhood as well as promoting the effective use of resources by perinatal health services.” Since its inception, a key area of its activities has been undertaking and supporting randomized controlled trials of the effects of perinatal care, now through the NPEU Clinical Trials Unit. The NPEU runs the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS), which is a national system studying rare disorders of pregnancy. In 2011, the Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care (PRUMC) was established at the NPEU.

History

The NPEU was established in 1978 by the Department of Health at Oxford University, following a joint request for a national research institute by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Paediatric Association. The Department gave the unit the task of providing "information which can promote effective use of resources in the perinatal health services." From the beginning, the first NPEU Director, Iain Chalmers, was guided by the principles for evaluating effectiveness of health care described by Archie Cochrane in his book, Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services. From its early days, the NPEU was a leader in both randomized controlled trials to assess the effects of perinatal care, the retrieval of information, and the development and use of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to synthesize research results. The unit developed extensive national and international collaborations which were to form both the basis of its work and lay the foundations for the development of the Cochrane Collaboration. Beginning with a card file of references to perinatal trials and both manual and electronic searching for further trials, the NPEU developed first a book, the Classified Bibliography of Controlled Trials in Perinatal Medicine 1940–1984, and then the Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials (ODPT). This process of developing a register of trials led to others establishing a register of trials in fertility as well as the basis for the development of the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) when the NPEU's Director left to establish the UK Cochrane Centre in 1992, from where the Cochrane Collaboration evolved in 1993. By 1989, the synthesis of the results of perinatal research led to the publication of major books. By 1990, ODPT included electronic syntheses called overviews, which were the precursor for the Cochrane Collaboration's Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. In 2013, the NPEU was awarded a silver department Athena SWAN award for its commitment to advancing women's careers in science and medicine. In February 2026, the unit moved from the University's Nuffield Department of Population Health, of which it was previously a part, to the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health.

Directors Sir Iain Chalmers (1978 to 1992) Judith Lumley (1994 to 1995) Peter Brocklehurst (2002 to 2011) Jenny Kurinczuk (2011 to 2023) Marian Knight (present)

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit

In research: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 establishments in the United Kingdom, Epidemiology organizations, Health in Oxfordshire, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in simple terms?

Why does National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit.