| Application: | 20684, Understanding the associations between environmental exposures, health behaviours and health outcomes |
| Title: | Estimating physical activity from self-reported behaviours in large-scale population studies using network harmonisation: findings from UK Biobank and associations with disease outcomes |
| Size: | 6.7 MB |
| Archived: | 14 May 2021 |
| Stability: | Complete |
| Personal: | Contains individual-level data |
Return 3412
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Notes
UK Biobank uses wrist accelerometers which can provide relatively accurate measures of physical activity and are useful for understanding links to mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Only in 1 in 5 participants took part in this aspect of UK Biobank, and the measurements took place 5 years after the initial start of the study, meaning at present analyses are less powerful than they would be had the measures been taken earlier. In contrast, almost all of the 500,000 participants reported their physical activity in a questionnaire at the start of the study, although these data aren't as accurate as the accelerometer data. In this study we tried to improve the accuracy of the questionnaire data by calibration with the more robust accelerometer measures. We then tested the accuracy of our new physical activity estimate in a separate group of people and then used the estimate to investigate how physical activity is related to disease in the main UK Biobank cohort. We found that the group average for the new physical activity estimate compared very well with the group average from the best measure of physical activity available the doubly labelled water method. The correlation of the new physical activity estimate with this gold-standard measure was good considering it came from questionnaire data, but not as strong as device-based measures such as accelerometers. Our results mean that our new questionnaire-based estimate of physical activity is good for putting individuals in a group in rank-order and for telling us how active that group is on average. When we used the new activity estimate to see how it related to disease, we found higher physical activity was associated with lower cardiovascular disease and cancer, and that meeting the current physical activity guidelines resulted in approximately 14% lower risk of mortality.Application 20684
Understanding the associations between environmental exposures, health behaviours and health outcomes
It is hypothesised that physical, social and economic environments are related to health. However, in the absence of large population based cohorts with good quality measures of the environment, health behaviours and health outcomes, there is limited robust evidence confirming these relationships. This project will examine the associations between environmental conditions around participants? homes (including features of the built environment, proximity to destinations that facilitate healthy behaviours, and air pollution) and physical activity and dietary behaviours and health outcomes such as overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and death. One of UK Biobank?s principal aims is the prevention of serious disease. Lack of physical activity and poor diet are risk factors for multiple chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. The environments we live in contribute to lower levels of physical activity, unhealthy diets, rising overweight and obesity, and socio-economic inequalities in these behaviours and related diseases. Actions to improve the environment for public health are increasingly advocated in the UK and elsewhere. Understanding the relationships between the environment, dietary and physical activity behaviours, and health outcomes can inform strategies for improving population health. We will use measures of the environment around people?s homes, already calculated for Biobank participants, and examine their associations with self-reported or objectively measured dietary and physical activity behaviours and health outcomes. For example, we will examine the associations between measures of the built environment and proximity to destinations (such as parks and supermarkets) and self-reported and objective measures of physical activity. We will also assess the associations with changes in physical activity and diet in the repeat-measures subsample. All analyses will use existing, and accruing, data only. We will not need to re-contact participants Data from the full cohort and the repeat subsample are requested.
| Lead investigator: | Dr Jenna Panter |
| Lead institution: | University of Cambridge |
2 related Returns
| Return ID | App ID | Description | Archive Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2622 | 20684 | Impact of follow-up time and analytical approaches to account for reverse causality on the association between physical activity and health outcomes in UK Biobank | 28 Oct 2020 |
| 2621 | 20684 | Using alternatives to the car and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality | 28 Oct 2020 |
1 Publication
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3413 | Estimating physical activity from self-reported behaviours in large-scale population studies using network harmonisation: findings from UK Biobank and associations with disease outcomes | Pearce M et al. | 2020 | Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health