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Health Studies User Conference 2026

25 Jun 2026 9:45 am - 4:30 pm
Online
Conferences
Health

Due to the Red Extreme Heat warning issued by the Met Office for London on 25 June, we have moved the conference fully online.

Are you interested in research using health-related data? Want to know what the future holds for population health surveys? Or are you curious how large-scale surveys are used in research, policy-making and monitoring?

Join us for the Health Studies User Conference 2026!

Organised by the UK Data Service in collaboration with UCL and the National Centre for Social Research, this free one-day conference brings data producers and data users together to share updates on the development of key health-related surveys such as the Health Survey for England, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, National Study of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, and national longitudinal and cohort studies. It will also showcase research that is being carried out using the data.

View the programme, research paper abstracts, and slides under 'Event resources' below.

We are delighted to announce that our keynote speaker will be Professor Sally McManus, City St George’s, University of London, who will present on Surveying the mental health of the general population: mapping three decades of inequality and change.

The conference will feature a session on the future of population health surveys, led by the Office for National Statistics and Department of Health and Social Care. A key aim of the session is to hear from attendees. There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

There will also be a dedicated session of lightning talks to provide updates from key longitudinal studies, with a focus on data linkage.

In the afternoon, we will showcase papers from researchers working with health survey data from the UK Data Service on a wide range of topics including mental health, ethnicity, inequalities, smoking and more.

Join us to connect with fellow researchers and data producers and hear about the wealth of valuable UK health study data that are available.

Follow LinkedIn for updates and join the conversation on Bluesky: #UKDSHealth26

Recordings of UK Data Service events are made available on our YouTube channel and, together with the slides, on our past events pages soon after the event has taken place.

Event resources

Programme (PDF)

Abstracts (PDF)

Presentation slides:

Updates: Cross-sectional health surveys and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Katie Ridout, National Centre for Social Research

In focus: National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL), Rebecca Light, National Centre for Social Research

Future of population health surveys, Tim Vizard, Office for National Statistics, and Paul Niblett, Department of Health and Social Care

Health data linkages in the Centre for Longitudinal Studies’ national longitudinal cohort studies, Richard Silverwood, University College London

Recent developments in Understanding Society, Jack Kneeshaw, University of Essex

The UK Census Longitudinal Studies, Stephen Jivraj, University College London

A pathway to improved maternity research in Northern Ireland? Novel linkage of Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and Northern Ireland Maternity Services System, Estelle Lowry, Queen’s University Belfast

From survey to reference curves: Population-representative age–sex–treatment blood pressure, distributions from Health Survey for England 2022, Amanda Shiach, Queen Mary University of London

Cigarette dependence is greatest in smokers who start young: a repeat cross-sectional study 1998-2022, Harry Tattan-Birch, UCL

Does the use of flexible working influence disabled people’s work exit and wellbeing: Results from Understanding Society, Baowen Xue, UCL

Population mental health in England, 2003–2022: Teasing apart psychological distress vs. self reported mental illness vs. activity limitations, Christoph Henking, King’s College London

Adolescent mental health and young adulthood NEET status in the UK – the moderating role of area level deprivation using Understanding Society, Katie Sarah Taylor, UCL

Estimating adolescent suicide attempt likelihood and moderating pathways from depressive symptoms: Incorporating high-dimensional risk and protective factors using the UK Millennium Cohort Study, Sharon Neufeld, University of Cambridge

The role of parent, adolescent, and teacher perceptions in shaping mental health help-seeking: How cross-informant agreement shapes adolescent mental health service contact, Tiara Schwarze-Taufiq, University of Cambridge

Sex and health across gendered contexts: A focus on generational differences, Verena Schneider, UCL

Healthy data outcomes, Finn Dymond-Green, UK Data Service