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Data Access Register - full project summary

Application ID LLC_0029
Project Title Harmonising diagnoses of health conditions across British birth cohorts
Lead Applicant Laura Gimeno
Organisation(s) Name(s) University College London
Approval Date 14/03/2023
Application Status Approved
Lay Summary

Britain’s five national “birth cohorts” follow people from birth until now to learn about their lives, including their health. It can be hard for researchers to combine data from these cohorts or to compare health across cohorts. This is because they record information about the same health problems in different ways.

 

To lower this barrier to research, our goal is to use information from surveys and linked healthcare data to identify people with doctor diagnoses of chronic health conditions in the same way across the five cohorts. We will look at heart and blood vessel diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic breathing problems. Providing COVID-19 researchers with data on these conditions that is consistent across cohorts is important. This is because they are key risk factors for bad COVID-19 outcomes and long COVID, and leading causes of death and disease in the UK. We also want to understand how people’s self-reports of their health conditions compare to their medical records.

 

Our work will make it easier and faster for other researchers to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with a range of health conditions, influencing policy and helping to improve people’s lives.

Datasets Requested

Study data

  • British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS 70)
  • Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
  • National Child Development Study 1958 (NCDS58)
  • Next Step
  • National Survey of Health and Development 1946 (NSHD46)
  • TWINS UK

Linked Data

  • NHS Digital Demographics
  • NHS Digital Cancer Registration Data
  • NHS Digital Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care
  • NHS Digital Hospital Episode Statistics Outpatient
  • NHS Digital Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency
  • NHS DigitalGDPPR Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19)
  • NHS Digital GDPPR Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19)
  • NHS Digital Covid-19 Vaccination Status
  • NHS Digital COVID-19 Second Generation Surveillance System (Pillar 1 & Pillar 2)
  • NHS Digital NPex (Pillar 2)
  • NHS Digital Covid-19 UK Non-hospital Antibody Testing Results (Pillar 3)
Results & Impact