A Work And Health Research Data (AWAHRD) Platform

Background: The availability and accessibility of occupational health data remains a challenge in the UK for work and health research to inform and support policy activities to reduce work-related ill-health.

Occupational data is generally not systematically collected with any routine health data, such as primary care records and Hospital Episode Statistics and comparability of measures across datasets is difficult to assess.

The use of Trusted Research Environments for secure analysis of population level data at scale offer a unique and timely opportunity for the co-location of sensitive data.

Aim: This project aims to lay the groundwork for the development of a data platform- A Work and Health Research Data (AWAHRD) platform- to collate datasets with work and health data and to facilitate the harmonisation of future data collection across the UK.

Methods: We will draw on the current investment in data infrastructure of the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (ukllc.ac.uk, UK LLC) to develop a data platform that will bring together new and existing datasets that investigate the relationship between work and health.

Specifically the work will be undertaken under five work pages that will each address the following research objectives.

RO1: Build an interdisciplinary consortium that will maximise the potential of the UK LLC and other data resources for health and work research.

RO2: Investigate and map available cohorts and routine health data sources with occupational data; their utility for health and work research (including impact of policy and practice interventions); and opportunities to enrich occupational data through linkage or additional data collection, including two occupational cohort UK LLC ingestion scoping studies.

RO3: Investigate availability of data sources on occupational risk factors, such as exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents, and psychosocial stressors.

RO4: Scope the need for harmonized tools and protocols to collect data on occupation and risk factors prospectively to enrich existing data sources RO5: Develop a research proposal for Stage 2 of the NIHR Work and Health Call (2024) Conclusions: This project will develop a large-scale project and build a platform for work and health research that can have long-term benefits to individuals of working age, their families, employers and society.

This will be an important data resource for work and health research in the UK that will allow us to measure if policies and other interventions result in improved health of the UK workforce.