Additional exposures ⏵ Local environment ⏵ Home locations
Description
This section holds information on the geographical location of the home addresses of participants over time. The coordinates presented were derived from UK address information obtained from a variety of sources, including self-report by participants. There is now an updated set of location history fields (Field 32220 - Field 32224). These have been derived to correct errors in the older set of location history fields (Field 22700 - Field 22704), which are now marked "[obsolete]" and will be retired in a subsequent update. Researchers are advised to adapt their pipelines to use the new fields where possible.The older fields contained some inherent inaccuracies in that some of the addresses were likely to reflect locations where the NHS interacted with the participant rather than their residential address, and that the date of address change corresponded to the date the address was changed in the corresponding IT system, rather than the actual address change. The latter issue largely arises from delays in participants informing UK Biobank or external agencies that they have moved. In addition, however, we have identified a number of dates that were incorrectly processed in the construction of Field 22700 and which were up to 30 months different from the participant's change of address notification.
NHS-source data has been removed from the new set of fields, except where the accuracy of the location data could be cross-checked with another data source such as self-report. For this reason, Field 22700 - Field 22704 contain no location history data prior to baseline. The dates have also been corrected as far as possible, though they will still reflect when participants registered address changes rather than the actual date when they moved. Please also note that absence of information after recruitment does not necessarily mean that a particular participant has not changed address, only that they have not registered the change.
All home location fields in this category are restricted. If you require any location data for your project, you must contact the Access Management team for permission, listing the specific fields you require. Please note that access will only be granted for the lowest resolution fields necessary to complete your project. Access to higher-resolution fields will only be granted in exceptional circumstances where they are deemed essential for a particular research question.
