IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/fistud/v44y2023i4p399-415.html

Understanding Society: health, biomarker and genetic data

Author

Listed:
  • Michaela Benzeval
  • Edith Aguirre
  • Meena Kumari

Abstract

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study includes a wide range of health measures, and in particular biomarker and genetic data. This makes it a unique resource for research on the economics of health. We review the main features of the biomarker data, how they are collected, and evidence on data quality. We also discuss examples of how these data have been used in economic research to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaela Benzeval & Edith Aguirre & Meena Kumari, 2023. "Understanding Society: health, biomarker and genetic data," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 399-415, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:fistud:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:399-415
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-5890.12354?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arulsamy, Karen & Delaney, Liam, 2022. "The impact of automatic enrolment on the mental health gap in pension participation: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Michaela Benzeval & Meena Kumari & Andrew M. Jones, 2016. "How Do Biomarkers and Genetics Contribute to Understanding Society?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(10), pages 1219-1222, October.
    3. Hand, Chris, 2020. "Biology and being green: The effect of prenatal testosterone exposure on pro-environmental consumption behaviour," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 619-626.
    4. Stephanie Hinke Kessler Scholder & George L. Wehby & Sarah Lewis & Luisa Zuccolo, 2014. "Alcohol Exposure In Utero and Child Academic Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 634-667, May.
    5. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2020. "A latent class approach to inequity in health using biomarker data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 808-826, July.
    6. Jérôme Adda & Francesca Cornaglia, 2006. "Taxes, Cigarette Consumption, and Smoking Intensity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1013-1028, September.
    7. Peter Lynn & Pablo Cabrera‐Álvarez & Paul Clarke, 2023. "Sample composition and representativeness on Understanding Society," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 341-359, December.
    8. Hughes, Amanda & Kumari, Meena, 2019. "Testosterone, risk, and socioeconomic position in British men: Exploring causal directionality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 129-140.
    9. Aldo Rustichini & William G. Iacono & James J. Lee & Matt McGue, 2023. "Educational Attainment and Intergenerational Mobility: A Polygenic Score Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(10), pages 2724-2779.
    10. Madia, Joan E. & Moscone, Francesco & Nicodemo, Catia, 2023. "Studying informal care during the pandemic: mental health, gender and job status," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    11. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M., 2021. "The implications of self-reported body weight and height for measurement error in BMI," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M., 2025. "Biological age and predicting future health care utilisation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Davillas, Apostolos & M. Jones, Andrew, 2024. "Biological age and predicting future health care utilisation," ISER Working Paper Series 2024-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M., 2025. "Ageing, Health and Predicting Future Employment Exits: A Penalised Regression Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 18167, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M., 2021. "The implications of self-reported body weight and height for measurement error in BMI," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    5. Davillas, Apostolos & Pudney, Stephen, 2017. "Concordance of health states in couples: Analysis of self-reported, nurse administered and blood-based biomarker data in the UK Understanding Society panel," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 87-102.
    6. Michaela Benzeval & Thomas F. Crossley & Edith Aguirre, 2023. "A symposium on Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study: introduction," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 317-340, December.
    7. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2020. "A latent class approach to inequity in health using biomarker data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 808-826, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benzeval, Michaela & Davillas, Apostolos & Kumari, Meena & Lynn, Peter, 2014. "Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study Biomarker User Guide and Glossary," MPRA Paper 114713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mueller-Langer, Frank & Fecher, Benedikt & Harhoff, Dietmar & Wagner, Gert G., 2019. "Replication studies in economics—How many and which papers are chosen for replication, and why?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 62-83.
    3. Yuxiang Xie & E. Xie, 2025. "Intergenerational Transmission of Opportunity Inequality in the Context of the Healthy China Initiative," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 929-960, June.
    4. Nicola Barban & Elisabetta De Cao & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2016. "Assortative Mating on Education: A Genetic Assessment," Working Papers 2016-034, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    5. Karen Arulsamy, 2022. "The impact of adolescent psychological distress on access and participation in employer sponsored pension plans in the US," Working Papers 202201, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    6. Ruijun Hou & Samuel Baker & Stephanie von Hinke & Hans H. Sievertsen & Emil Sorensen & Nicolai Vitt, 2025. "Long-term Health and Human Capital Effects of EarlyLife Economic Conditions," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 25/814, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    7. Paolo Brunori & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Pedro Salas-Rojo, "undated". "Inherited inequality: a general framework and an application to South Africa," Working Papers 658, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Lesley Chiou & Erich Muehlegger, 2014. "Consumer Response to Cigarette Excise Tax Changes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(3), pages 621-650, September.
    9. Chen, Li-Shiun & Wang, Ping & Yao, Yao, 2018. "Power of personalized smoking cessation: A unified lifecycle framework for policy evaluation," Working Paper Series 20333, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    10. Stefano Lombardi & Nurfatima Jandarova & Kristina Zguro & Jarkko Harju & Aldo Rustichini & Andrea Ganna, 2026. "Effects of Genetic Propensity for Education on Labor Market and Health Trajectories across the Working Life," Papers 2604.24336, arXiv.org.
    11. Itzik Fadlon & Torben Heien Nielsen, 2019. "Family Health Behaviors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3162-3191, September.
    12. Fletcher, Jason M. & Frisvold, David E. & Tefft, Nathan, 2010. "The effects of soft drink taxes on child and adolescent consumption and weight outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 967-974, December.
    13. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2023. "Equality of opportunity and the expansion of higher education in the UK," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(4), pages 861-885, December.
    14. Evelina Linnros & J. Peter Nilsson, 2026. "Prenatal Conditions and Midlife Mental Health: Evidence from an Alcohol Policy Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 12654, CESifo.
    15. Apostolos Davillas & Victor Hugo Oliveira & Andrew M. Jones, 2024. "A model of errors in BMI based on self-reported and measured anthropometrics with evidence from Brazilian data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2371-2410, November.
    16. David Pérez-Mesa & à ngel S. Marrero, 2024. "Adult health and inequality of opportunity in Spain," Working Papers 671, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    17. Odermatt, Reto & Stutzer, Alois, 2015. "Smoking bans, cigarette prices and life satisfaction," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 176-194.
    18. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," PSE Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
    19. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2019. "Dynamic panel data estimation of an integrated Grossman and Becker–Murphy model of health and addiction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 703-733, February.
    20. Angelucci, Manuela & Bennett, Daniel M, 2022. "Depression, Pharmacotherapy, and the Demand for a Novel Health Product," IZA Discussion Papers 15832, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:fistud:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:399-415. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-5890 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.