More about the study

• The Glasgow Students Dataset, 1948-1972
• The Glasgow Alumni Health and Lifestyle Study, 2000-2003
• Information for researchers
• Privacy notice
• References

The Glasgow Students Dataset, 1948-1972

Students attending the University of Glasgow between 1948 and 1972 were invited to attend annual medical examinations at which a doctor recorded their height, weight, blood pressure and observations on their current health. They also recorded several aspects of their family background, medical history and current risk factors such as smoking, drinking and diet. The cohort is 76% male and the average age is 20. After the student medical service closed, the data were obtained, digitised and linked to national mortality records for research purposes by George Davey Smith, James McEwan and Peter McCarron.

The Glasgow Alumni Health and Lifestyle Study, 2000-2003

A follow-up study in 2000–2003, led by Mona Jeffreys (née Okasha), sent health questionnaires to all 11,422 traceable surviving participants, of whom 5830 responded. The questionnaire included questions about participants’ current and previous health, as well as health-related aspects of their lifestyle. Permission was also sought to access the mammogram records of female participants, leading to successful linkage in 656 cases.

Information for researchers

Pseudonymised extracts of data from the Glasgow Students Study can be provided to bona fide researchers, subject to approval by the University of Bristol Data Access Committee. Researchers interested in collaboration should contact David Carslake or George Davey Smith. A list of previous publications from the study is included below.

Privacy notice

The Glasgow Students Study is controlled by the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol. We hold data collected at clinics of the Glasgow University Student Health Service between 1948 and 1972. This includes the names and addresses of students, their medical histories and family backgrounds, a doctor’s assessment of their current health, and details of their lifestyles at the time. These have been linked to national records of death, cancer diagnosis and migration. We also hold similar data from the Glasgow Alumni Health and Lifestyle Study which was collected from the former students by questionnaires posted to them in 2000-2003.

We will use the data only for non-commercial research purposes. Published outcomes will contain no individual-level data but will contribute to knowledge of the factors causing health and disease in populations. No decisions regarding the individual treatment of participants will be affected by the data we hold about them.

Retrospective approval to use the Glasgow Students Dataset for research purposes was granted by MREC Scotland and our legal basis for processing the data is that “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest” [GDPR Article 6(1)(e)]. The data we hold and process include “Special Category Data” including data on people’s health and racial identity. This requires additional justification. In our case, the justification is that “processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject” [GDPR Article 9(2)(j)].

The Glasgow Students Study is subject to approval by the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel in Scotland and by the University of Bristol Health Sciences Faculty Research Ethics Committee.

The original data in the Glasgow Students Study are stored in a digital “Safehaven” with limited access to ensure their accuracy and security. Specific research analyses will be carried out on subsets of the data containing only the variables and records necessary for that analysis. Participants’ names in these data subsets will be replaced by randomised ID numbers to prevent their identification.

We may share data with other researchers within the University of Bristol or at other institutions but variables which identify individuals will not be shared; researchers will be provided with restricted subsets of the data as described above. All researchers and IT staff within the University of Bristol will be subject to the University’s information security policy and collaborators in outside institutions will sign a data transfer agreement restricting their use and retention of the data.

We contacted all traceable participants in the 2000-2003 follow-up exercise but were not able to contact all of the original students and have no plans to contact participants in future. We plan to retain the data indefinitely but if you were registered with the University of Glasgow’s Student Health Service between 1948 and 1972 you have a right to ensure that the data we hold about you are correct and to withdraw from the study if you wish to. Please contact the study managers David Carslake or George Davey Smith if you have questions or concerns about the study.

References

Batty, G. D., et al. (2016). "Examining if being overweight really confers protection against dementia: Sixty-four year follow-up of participants in the Glasgow University alumni cohort study." Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine 15: 19.

Carslake, D., et al. (2016). "Being overweight in early adulthood is associated with increased mortality in middle age." Scientific Reports 6: 36046.

Crawford, A. A., et al. (2015). "Risk of suicide for individuals reporting asthma and atopy in young adulthood: Findings from the Glasgow Alumni study." Psychiatry Research 225: 364-367.

Davey Smith, G., et al. (2006). "Trends in resting pulse rate among students attending Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968: analyses of cross sectional surveys." International Journal of Obesity 30: 380-381.

Davey Smith, G., et al. (2001). "Social circumstances in childhood and cardiovascular disease mortality: prospective observational study of Glasgow University students." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 55: 340-341.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2008). "Association between early life history of respiratory disease and morbidity and mortality in adulthood." Thorax 63: 423-429.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2008). "Association between number of siblings and cause-specific mortality in the Glasgow alumni cohort study." European Journal of Epidemiology 23: 89-93.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2012). "The Association Between Irregular Menstruations and Acne With Asthma and Atopy Phenotypes." American Journal of Epidemiology 176: 733-737.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2005). "Acne in adolescence and cause-specific mortality: Lower coronary heart disease but higher prostate cancer mortality - The Glasgow Alumni Cohort Study." American Journal of Epidemiology 161: 1094-1101.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2005). "Has acne increased? Prevalence of acne history among university students between 1948 and 1968. The Glasgow Alumni Cohort Study." British Journal of Dermatology 152: 824-825.

Galobardes, B., et al. (2006). "Childhood socioeconomic circumstances predict specific causes of death in adulthood: the Glasgow student cohort study." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 60: 527-529.

Jeffreys, M., et al. (2006). "Lifecourse weight patterns and adult-onset diabetes: the Glasgow Alumni and British Women's Heart and Health Studies." International Journal of Obesity 30: 507-512.

Jeffreys, M., et al. (2003). "Body mass index in early and mid-adulthood, and subsequent mortality: a historical cohort study." International Journal of Obesity 27: 1391-1397.

Jeffreys, M., et al. (2004). "Life course breast cancer risk factors and adult breast density (United Kingdom)?" Cancer Causes & Control 15: 947-955.

Jeffreys, M., et al. (2006). "Initial experiences of using an automated volumetric measure of breast density: the standard mammogram form." British Journal of Radiology 79: 378-382.

Jeffreys, M., et al. (2008). "Breast cancer risk factors and a novel measure of volumetric breast density: cross-sectional study." British Journal of Cancer 98: 210-216.

Kinra, S., et al. (2006). "Association between sibship size and allergic diseases in the Glasgow Alumni Study." Thorax 61: 48-53.

Kinra, S., et al. (2003). "Is maternal transmission of coronary heart disease risk stronger than paternal transmission?" Heart 89: 834-838.

McCarron, P., et al. (2003). "Temperament in young adulthood and later mortality: prospective observational study." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57: 888-892.

McCarron, P., et al. (2001). "Changes in blood pressure among students attending Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968: analyses of cross sectional surveys." British Medical Journal 322: 885-888.

McCarron, P., et al. (2002). "Height in young adulthood and risk of death from cardiorespiratory disease: A prospective study of male former students of Glasgow University, Scotland." American Journal of Epidemiology 155: 683-687.

McCarron, P., et al. (2003). "Association between course of study at university and cause-specific mortality." Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 96: 384-388.

McCarron, P., et al. (1999). "Life course exposure and later disease: a follow-up study based on medical examinations carried out in Glasgow University (1948-68)." Public Health 113: 265-271.

Okasha, M., et al. (2003). "Childhood social class and adulthood obesity: findings from the Glasgow Alumni Cohort." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57: 508-509.

Okasha, M., et al. (2000). "Determinants of adolescent blood pressure: findings from the Glasgow University student cohort." Journal of Human Hypertension 14: 117-124.

Okasha, M., et al. (2000). "Height and cancer mortality: results from the Glasgow University Student Cohort." Public Health 114: 451-455.

Okasha, M., et al. (2001). "Age at menarche: secular trends and association with adult anthropometric measures." Annals of Human Biology 28: 68-78.

Okasha, M., et al. (2002). "Body mass index in young adulthood and cancer mortality: a retrospective cohort study." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 56: 780-784.

Okasha, M., et al. (2003). "Trends in body mass index from 1948 to 1968: results from the Glasgow Alumni Cohort." International Journal of Obesity 27: 638-640.

Patel, S., et al. (2012). "Associations between socioeconomic position and asthma: findings from a historical cohort." European Journal of Epidemiology 27: 623-631.

Tu, Y. K., et al. (2007). "Associations between tooth loss and mortality patterns in the Glasgow Alumni Cohort." Heart 93: 1098-1103.