UK Household Longitudinal Study: cohort profile

Understanding societal change and the consequences for different population groups is fundamental to social science and population health research. The UK Household Longitudinal Study is an infrastructure resource, in which data have been collected annually since 2009 from a sample of about 30 000 households selected to be representative of the four UK nations. Data are collected from all household members of all ages, and covers a wide range of topics, including health, biomarker, genetic, and epigenetic data and is freely available to researchers. The study has oversampled the five main ethnic minority groups in the UK to enable a sufficient sample size for analysis, and periodically boosts samples to ensure sufficient sample size and representativeness. The study incorporates and builds on the British Household Panel Survey; thus, data for a subsample of households are available back to 1991. The UK Household Longitudinal Study also has a smaller innovation panel with the same design that provides a platform for methodological research and innovation. Detailed social science information combined with multi-omics data, health survey data, and linkages to health and socioeconomic administrative data, enables research on the interaction between health, social, and economic change relevant to policymakers. The UK Household Longitudinal Study is widely used across biological, health, and social sciences: the study findings have been used extensively to influence social policy developments and public health.