Understanding Society blood sample storage v1

• Research type

  Research Tissue Bank

• IRAS ID

  334422

• Research summary

  Understanding Society – the UK Household Longitudinal Study blood sample storage

• REC name

  East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  24/EE/0065

• Date of REC Opinion

  10 Apr 2024

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion

• Data collection arrangements

  Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) is a longitudinal social survey of households and individuals designed to be representative of the UK. Data collection began in January 2009 and participants are interviewed annually. The study has a significant biological component, including the collection and storage of tissue samples. At waves 2/3 (2010-2012) venous blood samples were collected from participants by a nurse. The Study is conducting another wave of bio-data collection at Wave 16 (2024-2026), with participants invited to self-collect a capillary blood sample.

  Participation in the study and blood sample collection is voluntary. Informed consent has been given (or is being obtained at Wave 16) for the collection, analysis, and storage of blood samples for future research. The tissue bank will store the blood samples where the participant has consented to this. Samples will be stored at UK Biocentre which is licensed by the Human Tissue Authority. The blood samples will be anonymised and identified by a sample barcode only. No personal data will be held with the stored samples. The sample barcode will be used to link the samples to the Understanding Society survey data.

• Research programme

  Blood samples from the Understanding Society tissue bank will be made available to researchers from Higher Education or not-for-profit institutions for bona fide research. The research undertaken will range across biomedicine and social sciences generally. There are a number of possible research themes that sample analysis could support: • Understand the biological pathways that connect society and health. • Measure the prevalence of undiagnosed conditions/sub-clinical measures in different social groups. • Enable the health impacts associated with macro-change in society to be investigated. • Provide national representative benchmark of key biomarker measures. (Kumari et al, 2022) The research undertaken will also made use of the unique features of the study including: • the longitudinal nature of the study; • designed to represent the general population of the UK of all ages; • the inclusion of all household members in the study; and • the rich social and economic data. Researchers given access to the samples will be required to return their sample analysis to the Understanding Society team. Within one year of the sample analysis being completed, the study team will make the data available to the research community via the appropriate Understanding Society dataset. This is to facilitate the widest possible access to the blood sample analyses.

• Storage license

  12624

• RTBTitle

  Understanding Society – the UK Household Longitudinal Study blood sample storage

• Establishment organisation

  University of Essex

• Establishment organisation address

  Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

  Wivenhoe Park

  Colchester

  CO4 3SQ