Diet and long-term health: assessing the role of health outcomes using data from the UK Biobank and Million Women Study

background

In 2021, it was reported in the Global Burden of Disease Study that ~10% of all deaths and 30% of cardiovascular deaths were attributed to poor diet. However, many of the estimates from prospective studies assessing the effect of dietary factors may be unreliable due to bias or confounding. Furthermore, only a few studies have assessed how dietary factors influence both specific biochemical mechanisms and health-related outcomes.

The objective of this DPhil project is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of dietary factors on disease aetiology using prospective data from the 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank and 1.32 million participants in the Million Women Study. In some studies, the work will involve investigating prospective associations between major dietary factors and risk of non-communicable diseases assessed through hospital linkage, and/or cancer and death registries. It will also involve examining relevant biomarkers (e.g. using metabolomics, proteomics data and traditional clinical biomarkers) related to dietary factors using available data from the whole of the UK Biobank and a subset of 15,000 participants from the Million Women Study.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE, RESEARCH METHODS AND TRAINING

The student will perform a literature review on the topic, and plan and conduct statistical analyses using large-scale datasets. The student will also be expected to present the results in internal meetings, as well as at national and international conferences, and to write papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals.  

FIELD WORK, SECONDMENTS, INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS AND TRAINING

Support and training for specific research methods and statistical analyses will be provided within the department. There will also be an opportunity to collaborate with external researchers.

PROSPECTIVE  STUDENT

The project will suit someone with an interest in epidemiology with strong quantitative skills and postgraduate level training in statistics and epidemiology.