BHPS site: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/bhps
UKHLS site: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk
Updated 5/26/22
Country: United Kingdom
Study design: Observational cohorts with repeated measurements over time
Participant age range:
- Children / adolescents at enrollment
- Early adulthood or midlife
- Aging adults
Number of participants at baseline: 10,300 (BHPS); 40,000 households (UKHLS)
Year of initial enrollment: 1980
Number of data collection waves: 18 (BHPS), 10 (UKHLS); data collection ongoing
Measures of well-being:
- Positive psychological well-being (overall / multidimensional)
- Positive affect
- Life satisfaction
- Subjective happiness
- Social support / integration / cohesion
- Prosocial behavior or attitudes (e.g., volunteering, helping others)
Quantity of well-being measures (e.g., number of constructs, number of times well-being was assessed): High
Quality of well-being measures (e.g., were measures reliable and valid in the study population): High
Measures of physical health:
- Self-rated / questionnaire-based health
- Self-report medical history or medication use
- Measured anthropometrics, e.g., weight
- Biomarkers
- Genetics
- Linked medical records
- Adjudicated health outcomes
Access Information:
This dataset is available to all researchers.
Researchers are required to apply to access this data.
No fees are required to access this dataset.
Notable citation:
Tabassum F, Mohan J, & Smith P. (2016). Association of volunteering with mental well-being: a lifecourse analysis of a national population-based longitudinal study in the UK. BMJ Open, 6(8), e011327.