Health Outcomes and Health Related Behaviour

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Health Outcomes and Health Related Behaviour

• Scott Weich
• Dieter Wolke
• University of Warwick

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Opportunities

• Address questions at the interface between social
  science and biomedical research, including gene x
  environment effects.
• Longitudinal design, household recruitment and
  sample size make UKHLS uniquely suited to
  studying
• - Transitions across entire lifespan (inc
  pre-conception)
• - Effects of household and family
• - Ethnic differences
• Chance to study well-being as well as pathology,
  and to describe understand causes and
  consequences of positive health states
• Linkage to NHS IT networks and routine data
  sources?

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The importance of studying households variance
in GHQ-12 scores
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Challenges

• Limited questionnaire space and interview time
• Respondent fatigue
• Interviewer training and equipment costs for even
  basic physical data collection
• No funding beyond core measures
• Non-participation in invasive procedures, and
  particular challenges associated eg with fasting
  samples
• Optimum measurement frequency unclear
• Huge range of potential health measures

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BHPS Measures

• Disability (defined by receipt of benefits)
• Health limits housework/stairs/dressing/walking
• Health limits work
• Registered as disabled
• Self-rated health
• Checklist of 12 1 health problems (up to 4)
• 12-item General Health Questionnaire
• GP consultations count
• Accidents
• Admissions to hospital
• Check-ups
• Smoking

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Core Measures Initial UKHLS Focus

• Body composition
• Importance of describing understanding recent
  (and worsening) obesity epidemic
• Factors that enable or prevent lifestyle change
• Height, weight, waist hip circumferences
• Mental health and well-being
• Globally, depression major cause of DALYs
• Major cause of health care seeking in primary
  care
• Major cause of time lost from work
• Great interest in epidemiology of (mental)
  well-being

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Non-Core Measures?

• Genotyping
• Cardiovascular health BP, heart rate, ECG
• Metabolic health glucose, lipids, cholesterol
  (fasting?)
• Psychosis and Personality Disorder
• Early indicators of cognitive decline
• HPA axis and autonomic nervous system markers
• (endophenotypes)
• Inflammatory markers