Longitudinal data resources

The UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC) is the national Trusted Research Environment for longitudinal research including many of the UK’s most established longitudinal studies. The mission of the UK LLC is to provide a data linkage resource for its partner studies and a simple one-application process for UK researchers applying to access linked longitudinal research data.

CLOSER Discovery is a research tool that enables searching for variables measured in the UK’s leading longitudinal population studies and testing their robustness. The tool provides detailed information about the variables and where to access the data from each study.

The Health Data Research (HDR) UK Innovation Gateway is a portal in which researchers can search, discover and request access to hundreds of datasets, tools and resources for health research. The HDR UK Innovation Gateway contains information that is useful to researchers, data custodians and patients and the public.

The Catalogue of Social Care Data (CASCID) collates existing datasets with social care measures of social care need, provision or receipt. The CASCID provides overview information about the datasets and detailed information about the measures and enables users to search and filter by either datasets or measures.

Harmony is a tool that can compare the compatibility of different measures and questionnaire items of mental health. This tool enables the retrospective harmonisation of measures and items used in different studies, supporting cross-study comparisons and the maximisation of their data usability.

The Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets is an online searchable platform with information about longitudinal datasets from across the world, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The aim of the Atlas is to increase the findability and uptake of longitudinal data and facilitate researchers, funders, and others with exploring the richness and areas of opportunity in longitudinal research globally.

The Maelstrom Catalogue is a searchable platform that contains comprehensive information about epidemiological research networks and studies, and the data they have collected. Maelstrom also provides information about harmonized data generated by these research networks.

The Melbourne Children’s LifeCourse Initiative platform includes information about the core longitudinal cohorts of the the LifeCourse Initiative and the measures collected in each. The platform features a metadata catalogue with timelines of the cohorts and the data they have collected. It also contains a measurement library with the measures used in the cohorts to capture topics such as mental health and allergies.

TIDAL is a user-friendly research tool designed to facilitate trajectory modelling by improving access, analysis and interpretation of trajectory and longitudinal data. TIDAL is available in two formats: an R package and an online Shiny application aimed at a variety of users, with or without specialist statistical backgrounds. The aim is for this tool to remove barriers to data wrangling, analysing, visualising and interpreting of growth curve model data in longitudinal research.

DigiCAT is an open digital tool built that implements a range of counterfactual analysis methods to promote the principled use of this type of analysis for identifying potential active ingredients in mental health. The tool has been designed to handle real data, with capabilities for missing data, non-binary treatment effects and complex survey designs. DigiCAT is available in R and Shiny, and is accompanied by accessible tutorials.