Administrative health records – deaths, cancer registrations and coded hospital data – provide users with ‘hard’ outcomes, identifying serious illness or death, treatments and medical follow up. Linking these data with our Study data allows the investigation of the social, economic, environmental and behavioural precursors to illness. It also allows researchers to explore wider subsequent consequences of having an illness on other dimensions of health and aspects of family, work and social life.
Administrative health records are collected on a national basis in the UK. Health linkages for Scotland and Wales in process via the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). An application to NHS Digital for access to English health records is being prepared with the aim of sharing linked data via the UK Data Service, as well as UK LLC, where the data is already available.
Linked health data available for research
UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration
Understanding Society is part of the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC), a research infrastructure designed specifically for data linkage in longitudinal research, led by the Universities of Bristol and Edinburgh. UK LLC performs centralised data linkages across a range of longitudinal population studies to primary care, secondary care and Covid-relevant electronic NHS health records and keeps these up to date with regular updates. Anonymised linked data (the NHS records plus survey data) are stored within a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) hosted on UKSeRP (University of Swansea), from where they are made available for secure onward sharing (remote access) for approved researchers.
Where our participants have consented (~8,000), Understanding Society has contributed its Covid-19 study data, as well as survey data from all waves of the main survey to the resource. Later in 2025, we aim to add data for all UKHLS participants, including a fuller set of main survey data. Users may apply to analyse these data linked not just to health records on Covid-19 infections, testing and vaccinations but also to wider patient information, including hospital episode statistics.
Apply to use these data via the UK LLC.