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UK Biobank

UKBB logo
Datasets -
Variables -
Start Year
2006
Funding
UK Biobank was established by the Wellcome Trust medical charity, Medical Research Council, Department of Health, Scottish Government and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Supplementary Information
UK Biobank has received also funding from the Welsh Government, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK. It is supported by the National Health Service (NHS). UK Biobank is open to bona fide researchers anywhere in the world, including those funded by academia and industry. The medical research project is a non-profit charity which has received core funding of around ?133 Million. Core funding continues to be received from the Wellcome Trust, the MRC, and more recently, from Cancer Research UK and NIHR. UK Biobank has received additional funding for: genotyping of all 500,000 participants (from the Department of Health, Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation); for the measurement of biochemistry markers in all 500,000 participants (from the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK); for imaging 100,000 participants (Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation) and re-imaging 10,000 participants (Dementia Platform UK) and for establishing a remote analysis platform (Wellcome Trust). Researchers, particularly from industry, are enhancing the resource further (for example, by funding cohort-wide assays) in order to augment their own research aims, while at the same time benefiting the wider research community as the enhancements are shared with all researchers after a limited exclusivity period, which is now set at a fixed period of 9 months. Examples of this include cohort-wide assays of whole exome sequencing, whole genome sequencing, telomere length and NMR-metabolomics
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Members

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Investigators Contacts
  • Sir Rory Collins
    UK Biobank
  • UK Biobank Access
    UK Biobank
  • UK Biobank UK Biobank
    UK Biobank

Design

Study design
Cohort
Follow Up
Participants re-contacted periodically for further assessments. Follow-up for death and diseases is conducted chiefly through linkages to routinely available national datasets.
Supplementary Information

See details on repeated exposure data in the webpage of UKBB.

Marker Paper

Sudlow C, Gallacher J, Allen N, et al. UK biobank: an open access resource for identifying the causes of a wide range of complex diseases of middle and old age. PLoS Medicine, 2015;12(3).

Elliott P, Peakman TC; UK Biobank. The UK Biobank sample handling and storage protocol for the collection, processing and archiving of human blood and urine. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2008;37(2):234-44. Conroy M, Sellors J, Effingham M, et al. The advantages of UK Biobank's open-access strategy for health research. Journal of Internal Medicine, 2019; 286:389-97.

PUBMED 25826379

Recruitment

Sources of Recruitment
  • Individuals

Number of participants

Number of participants
502,000
Number of participants with biosamples
478,000
Supplementary Information

Data Access

Availability of data and biosamples

Data
Biosamples
Other

Sector of research

Data Biosamples
Investigators from the public sector
Investigators from the private sector
Investigators from not-for-profit organization

Transfer

Data Biosamples
Can leave the study facility
Can leave the country

Cost

Data Fixed Cost
Biosamples Fixed Cost

Fees can range between ?3000 - ?9,000 depending on the tier of data requested. An additional ?1000 fees are required for each addition institution that is to have access. Further information regarding fees can be found: https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/costs

Cost reduction for co-analyses

Data
Biosamples

Not available. Additional fees for each additional institution that has access to data.

Description of the access procedures

See the guide on how to access UK Biobank data for more information. For any queries regarding access procedure contact: access@ukbiobank.ac.uk

Availability of access information

On the study website : http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/

Yes
No
Not applicable
Don't know

Timeline

UK Biobank

Selection Criteria
Minimum age
40
Maximum age
69
Countries
  • United Kingdom
Territory
Birmingham, Bristol, Bury, Cardiff, Cheadle, Croydon, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hounslow, Leeds, Liverpool, London Barts, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, Sheffield, Stockport, Stoke, Swansea and Wrexham
Ethnic Origin
Health Status

Recruitment

Sources of recruitment
  • General population
General Population
  • Volunteer enrolment
Supplementary Information

Number of participants

Number of participants
502,000
Number of participants with biosamples
478,000
Supplementary Information

  • Over 3,000 participants were included in the pilot phase.
  • 500,000 participants were recruited in the baseline
  • Repeated assessment of 20,000 participants was carried out.
  • Approximately 320,000 participants provided the enhancement data on diet.
  • Close to 100,000 participants provided the enhancement data on physical activity.
  • 121,000 participants complete the occupational health questionnaire.
  • About 100,000 participants will provide the imaging data.

Data Collection Events
# Name Description Start End
0 UK Biobank - Pilot phase Information on sociodemographics (education, household income), lifestyle (diet, physical activity, drinking and smoking habits, electronic device use), psychosocial factors (mental health, social ... 2006-03 2006-06
1 UK Biobank - Recruitment The collection of baseline data and biolocigal samples. The assessment visit comprised electronic signed consent; a self-completed touch-screen questionnaire; brief computer-assisted interview; ... 2006-07 2010-10
2 UK Biobank - Follow-up Linked health-related data. Participants? health is followed-up through linkage to death and cancer registries as well as hospital inpatient and outpatient records. Information on cause-specific ... 2007-04
3 UK Biobank - Diet questionnaire Information on the nutrition was collected by online 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire. 2011-02 2012-04
4 UK Biobank - Repeated baseline assessment Repeated baseline assessment. Information on sociodemographics (birthplace, employment, income, education, ethnicity), lifestyle (24-hour detailed diet recall, physical activity, sleep, drinking ... 2012-08 2013-06
5 UK Biobank - Physical activity enhancement data collection Information on physical activity was collected using a wrist-worn tri-axial accelerometer. 2013-07 2016-01
6 UK Biobank - Imaging scans

Information on MRI brain, heart and abdomen, ultrasound of carotid arteries and whole body DXA scan of bones and joints, process completion time, durations and process authorisation data is ...

 2014-08
7 UK Biobank - Cognitive function questionnaire A series of online puzzles and questions assessing cognitive function was collected from a web questionnaire. Topics of the questionnaire included: mood, fluid intelligence, trail making, symbol ... 2014-11 2014-12
8 UK Biobank - Occupational history and health questionnaire Information was collected on occupational history, respiratory health and medication use for respiratory conditions; and smoking habits using web questionnaire. 2015-07 2015-09
9 UK Biobank - Mental health questionnaire Information on as anxiety, depression, happiness and subjective well-being, mental distress, self-harm, traumatic events, unusual and psychotic experiences behaviours further other risk factors ... 2016-08 2016-12
10 UK Biobank - Digestive health questionnaire Information was collected from a web questionnaire about abdominal discomfort, chest pain, dizziness, coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, family history of IBS, satisfaction with bowel habits, ... 2018 2018
11 UK Biobank - Food preferences questionnaire Information was collected from a web questionnaire about biological and environmental factors that influence food preferences or lifestyle choices and their association with health. 2019-01 2019-06
12 UK Biobank - Pain questionnaire Information was collected from a web questionnaire about experience of chronic pain: types, severity and duration, for all participants. 2019 2019
13 UK Biobank - Repeated imaging scans

Information on MRI brain, heart and abdomen, ultrasound of carotid arteries and whole body DXA scan of bones and joints, process completion time, durations and process authorisation data is ...

 2019-07
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