UK studies & Covid-19

Covid-19 Data Collection Overview

Many studies initiated additional phases of data collection to examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown on mental health and wellbeing. Browse the Covid-19 data collection timeline below to find information about the mental health data collected by UK longitudinal and cohort studies during the pandemic.

COVID-19 IN ESTABLISHED LONGITUDINAL & COHORT STUDIES

Use the "Covid-19 data collection" filter on the search page to limit your search to studies collecting information about mental health and wellbeing throughout the pandemic, or click from the list below:

COVID-19 data collection started in 2020 and many studies are still following participants to measure the impact of the pandemic.

NEW STUDIES & COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVES ON MENTAL HEALTH & COVID-19

A number of new studies were initiated to explore the effects of the pandemic on mental health, such as the Covid Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) Study. Many of these studies coordinated efforts to facilitate collaboration between them.

WELLCOME TRUST Covid-19 QUESTIONNAIRE
The Wellcome Longitudinal Population Study (LPS) Covid-19 Steering Group & Secretariat developed the Wellcome Trust Covid-19 Questionnaire to maximise the benefits gained from pandemic data collection by existing cohorts at minimal added cost and maximal public benefit.

The questionnaire is freely available to all population health researchers wishing to address health, behaviour, social, environmental and economic questions in the context of the pandemic. Find out more on the questionnaire webpage. Search “Wellcome” in the Covid-19 timeline to identify data collection points that have utilised this Survey.

NIH CORONAVIRUS HEALTH IMPACT (CRISIS) SURVEY
The CRISIS Survey was designed to enable researchers and care providers to examine the extent and impact of life changes induced by the epidemic on the mental health and behaviour of individuals and families across diverse international settings. The survey is available for download and use on the CRISIS website. Search “crisis” in the Covid timeline to identify data collection points that have utlitsed the CRISIS Survey.

COVID MINDS
COVID-MINDS is a network of longitudinal studies on the global mental health impact of Covid-19 funded by the Wellcome Trust. Covid-MINDS aims to support data sharing, the harmonisation of mental health measures, and dissemination. The network have identified:

New and established longitudinal studies examining mental health during Covid-19
Studies based in the UK and across the world

This list of studies is a useful resource to identify Covid-19 studies. If you ran a relevant longitudinal study, you can register your study with the network.

COVID-19 & MENTAL HEALTH STUDIES REGISTER
The NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC) established the Covid-19 and Mental Health Studies Register with the aim of facilitating the development of high-quality collaborative mental health research in the context of the pandemic. The register collated information about:

Any study based in the UK that either addresses mental health aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, or has the potential to address this field (for example, a Covid-19 respiratory study which is open to adding mental health outcome measures)
International studies which have UK partners

UK LONGITUDINAL LINKAGE COLLABORATION (LLC)
The UK LONGITUDINAL LINKAGE COLLABORATION (UK LLC) is a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) that hosts longitudinal study data, including mental health data, from 20 of the UK’s established longitudinal studies that is linked to studies’ participants NHS health records. It is a unique four-nations infrastructure for secure cross-cohort analysis where researchers can apply to access linked data across all partner studies through a single application.

The UK LLC TRE contains pre-pandemic longitudinal data and data collected from participants during the lockdowns and throughout the pandemic. ONS Approved Researchers working on Covid-19 research may apply to access this data, which is currently free of charge.