A data-field is the fundamental block of data held within the UK Biobank repository and identifies the results of a single question, measurement or result (or part thereof).
To facilitate searching, data-fields have been labelled with a number of basic properties:
- Participants - the number of participants for whom the field holds data;
- Item count - how many data points are held;
- Stability - how 'fixed' are the data-field contents;
- Value type - what type of variable represents the data-field;
- Item type - the nature of the data;
- Strata - what the scope/domain of the data-field is;
- Sexed - for which sex(es) is the data-field applicable;
- Instances - are there multiple instances for a participant;
- Array - are there multiple data items for each instance;
- Debut - when the field definition was first introduced;
- Version - when data was last imported for this field.
- Data - a more detailed summary of the values held for this data-field, possibly including frequency tables, trees, histograms and other charts according to the nature of the data;
- Notes - information relating to the collection and properties of the data;
- Categories - a list of any categories to which the data-field belongs;
- Related Fields - other data-fields, related to the current one, which are required to make best use of the values of the current data-field.
- Additional Resources - additional material (documents, images, videos) relevant to this data-field.