University of Oxford

Academic Institute

OFHS240228

Our Future Health collects a lot of information about people's own health, their life experiences and genetics. Genetics examines different characteristics passed down from your parents. Your health is not only influenced by genetics, but also where you grew up or lived and your family environment. A main thing we want to examine is whether people who joined Our Future Health differ from those who decided not to sign up. To do this we can compare everyone who participated in Our Future Health with other information to see how similar or different they are. We also want to understand what role a person’s genetics, their family or local area contributes to their overall health. Knowing this information will be useful for everyone who uses the data. It will also benefit people and society by creating a better understanding of the many things that influence health. Participation bias is a common challenge in genetic biobank studies. In sampling surveys, participation bias is typically assessed by comparing characteristics like age and BMI of participants with census data. However, such comparison is not possible for genetic data, as there is no census data available for genetic information. Our research on the UKBiobank has shown that participation bias can skew research results and, in extreme cases, lead to incorrect conclusions. To effectively utilize the results from OFH, such as in personalized medicine, it is important to recognize the factors that may influence the scientific findings. Additionally, investigating representativeness of sample surveys is a matter of equality as scientific progress is more likely to benefit groups that are well-represented in the data. We have also demonstrated the value of family data for social and genetic research and therefore assessing the relatedness of sample for others to use, would be an asset to OFH. Examining participation bias, interrelatedness and the relationship between diseases and complex traits will provide a valuable broader resource.

OFH is a unique resource that will allow many researchers to study significant diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and dementia. Data has been collected rapidly across different geographical areas, socioeconomic and ethnicity groups, with a unique potential to broaden our understanding reduce health inequalities. But this research needs the foundation of a systematic and rigorous understanding of the socioeconomic, demographic and genetic data from which it is derived. OFH would benefit from the valuable groundwork of this project that evaluates but also offers solutions for potential sample and participation bias, relatedness and how this may or may not impact the study of disease and complex trait outcomes.

Public Health Research

28/03/2025

20/03/2025

TRE