Our Future Health

Independent Sector Organisation

Diana van der Plaat

OFHS230104

We are researchers at Our Future Health. We will analyse the questionnaire data of Our Future Health to discover: - Information on the different health, social and lifestyle factors reported by participants in the programme. - Information on the patterns across different groups of people. For example by ethnicity, age, sex, and social and economic circumstances. - Information on people who might develop a certain condition. We will use the results of these analyses to inform the public and researchers about the data in the Our Future Health database. Our findings will be shared through relevant charities, scientific and medical publications, conferences and engagement with members of the public. Despite advances in healthcare, many people spend many years of their later life in poor health. In the UK, 54% of people aged 65 or older live with two or more serious health conditions. By 2035, that figure is expected to rise to 68%. Many of these conditions are common diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and stroke. Health systems focus on treating them once they show symptoms. However, diseases often start in the body long before you notice any symptoms. Our Future Health is the UK’s largest ever health research programme. Researchers can use the data to find new ways to prevent, detect, and treat common diseases. The programme is committed to putting together a collection of data that truly reflects the UK population, so that researchers can identify differences in how diseases begin and progress in people from different backgrounds. People who have joined Our Future Health have shared information about their health, family, social circumstances, and lifestyle by filling in a questionnaire. By analysing this de-identified data, we can better describe the data we have collected to the research community. It will also help us inform the public about what we have learned whilst maintaining confidentiality.

This study will enable us to publish articles in scientific journals about the data that we hold and make available to other researchers. It will help provide a common understanding of the content of the programme, and its features in comparison to other databases. This will ultimately support research which uses Our Future Health data to improve its quality and to have greater benefits for population health. We will also use the results of this study to provide reliable summaries of the data to both our participants and the wider public. To do this, we will use our own communications channels and external media. It will help us to be transparent about the content and purpose of the Our Future Health, while sharing our findings and learnings.

Public Health Research

02/02/2024

TRE