UK Biobank: An Open Access Resource for Identifying the Causes of a Wide Range of Complex Diseases of Middle and Old Age

AI Generated Summary*

A population-based prospective cohort of over 500,000 volunteers aged 40 to 69, assessed in 22 UK centres during 2006 to 2010, was established to investigate genetic and non-genetic causes of disease in middle and later life. Power calculations pointed to 5,000 to 10,000 cases per condition for detecting exposure odds ratios of 1.3 to 1.5. Enhancements include a dietary questionnaire (over 200,000 participants), a repeat baseline visit (about 20,000), planned genotyping for all, plus activity monitoring and imaging in subsets of 100,000. Linkage yielded over 8,500 deaths, 75,000 prevalent and incident cancers and 600,000 hospital admissions. Open access without collaboration began April 2012; within two years over 1,000 researchers, mostly UK academics, registered and over 200 applications were submitted.

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