University College London

Academic Institute

OFHS260134

Our goal is to understand why some people stay healthy as they get older while others develop common age-related physical and mental health conditions. We will study how a person’s genes, lifestyle, environment and social circumstances work together to influence healthy ageing and the risk of conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and depression. Specifically, we will: (i) identify factors that increase or reduce the risk of common age-related health conditions; (ii) investigate whether these factors directly cause changes in health, rather than simply being linked with them; (iii) develop and test new ways of improving the accuracy and fairness of research when some groups of people are less likely than others to take part in studies; and (iv) examine whether the causes of disease differ between people from different ethnic backgrounds and social circumstances. Our findings will help improve understanding of healthy ageing and support the development of more effective and equitable approaches to disease prevention and healthcare.As people live longer, more people are developing longer-term conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and depression. These conditions are influenced by many factors, including our genes, lifestyle, environment and social circumstances. Understanding how these factors work together is essential for identifying opportunities to prevent disease and help people live healthier, more independent lives for longer. Large-scale population health studies have greatly improved our understandings of health and disease. However, many include people mostly from similar ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds, and some groups are less likely to take part than others. This means that research findings may not always apply equally to everyone, and important differences between population groups may be missed. By using Our Future Health in our research, we will improve understanding of healthy ageing across diverse populations. We will also develop and test methods to identify and reduce problems that can occur when study participants are not fully representative of the wider population. This will help ensure that research findings are more accurate, reliable and relevant for everyone.

This research will improve understanding of why some people develop common age-related conditions and why others remain healthy as they get older. By studying the combined effects of genes, lifestyle, environment and social circumstances, we hope to identify opportunities to prevent disease and promote healthy ageing. Our work will improve the quality of health research by developing better ways to deal with situations where some groups of people are under-represented in studies. This will help ensure that research findings are more accurate and better reflect the wider population, including people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our findings will provide stronger evidence to support public health policies, healthcare planning and future biomedical research. They will also help researchers make better use of large health datasets and improve confidence in the conclusions drawn from them. Ultimately, this work will support the development of more effective and equitable public health and clinical interventions and contribute to reducing health inequalities.

Public Health Research

29/09/2026

09/09/2026

TRE