Read about important health discoveries, made possible by our volunteers. Data from our volunteers has allowed 370+ research papers so far on health conditions including mental health, cancer, chronic pain, dementia, Covid-19 and many more. Our research findings have been published in well-known journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics and Wellcome Open Research. Read about some of our major findings and access all of the research from approved researchers below. Who Does Our Research? Our team is made up of scientists, communicators and administrators. Together, we follow a safe and secure process to allow approved researchers to carry out important health research. Researchers apply to us from institutions within Scotland as well as around the world. You can find out more about how we approve researchers and protect our volunteers’ data in our FAQs section. Mental Health View some of our key mental health research. Covid-19 View some of our key Covid-19 research. This includes Covid-life, a survey which asked around 18,000 Generation Scotland volunteers about how the pandemic impacted them. Research also looks at how the pandemic has impacted people's mental health. GS volunteers help to develop and use cutting-edge tools to find and treat major depression Depression is a complicated disorder, so Generation Scotland (along with other international researchers) are bringing together large samples, brain images (MRI) and new machine learning models (AI) to identify brain markers of people with depression and develop individual treatments. This important project is only in its first stages. This ‘dimensional’ and collaborative approach will be vital to understanding and treating depression as well as other diseases. Anxiety and depression due to the pandemic could remain for years Levels of anxiety and depression remained high between lockdowns and worsened in the second lockdown, found researchers Unlocking the potential of newborn blood spots Newborn blood spots from a small sample of 98 Generation Scotland volunteers were tested to see if they could be used for health research on a national scale. Here's what we found. Study suggests link between severe Covid-19 and long-term mental health outcomes 16 months after illness The findings were made after data from more than 18,000 of our CovidLife volunteers were analysed alongside volunteer data from 6 other studies. New gene linked to kidney function identified Generation Scotland volunteer data used in large scale study that identifies a new gene location affecting kidney function. New test could help identify type 2 diabetes risk Analysing changes to DNA in the blood can improve the ability to predict a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes within a decade. New scoring system could pave the way to predicting future health outcomes By analysing the blood of over 9000 of our volunteers, researchers may have found a new way to predict when some health conditions might develop. Parent-of-Origin effects could be influenced by environment The research, using Generation Scotland volunteer data, may help highlight some genes as potential new targets for treatments. Can DNA methylation research answer important questions about mental health? The recent findings were made after researchers studied data from over 9,000 Generation Scotland volunteers. More education could reduce chance of cerebral small vessel disease in later life A study, including data from more than 1,000 Generation Scotland volunteers, has found that early life experiences can affect cerebral small vessel disease risk. 46 new gene variations found to increase gallstone risk The research, including Generation Scotland volunteer data, found 75 variations in genes that can affect a person's risk of getting gallstone disease. People with previous mental ill health hit harder by pandemic disruption People with higher levels of depression or anxiety before the pandemic have been more affected by job and healthcare disruption during the pandemic, according to a new study including Generation Scotland volunteer data. New data suggests smoking has a greater effect on BMI than first thought The research, led by Carmen Amador at the University of Edinburgh, analysed genome sequence data from over 18,000 of our volunteers. Proteins could be the key to catching Alzheimer's Disease early The research, led by the University of Oxford, studied the protein data over 1,000 Generation Scotland volunteers. 6 variations in genes identified that can affect non-alcoholic fatty liver disease The research combined Generation Scotland volunteer data with data from the UK Biobank. It showed that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can be identified from hospital and GP records. New genes linked to longer reproductive lifespan in women identified Research, including Generation Scotland volunteer data, identifies nearly 300 variations in genes that can affect reproductive lifespan in women Greater loneliness in young people during lockdown Our latest results show that young people age 12 - 17 in the TeenCovidLife project were lonelier than adults in the CovidLife project at all stages of the pandemic. Long-term inflammation may hold a key to understanding depression Researchers, based at the University of Edinburgh, found that longer-term inflammation was related to changes in brain structure, which may help shed light on causes of depression. Ethnic diversity in research identifies more traits related to diabetes A large scale genetic study, including our data, has found more regions of the genome linked to type 2 diabetes traits by using volunteer data from all over the world. This is more than if the research had been done on Europeans alone. TeenCovidLife: Survey 2 Results Over 2,000 TeenCovidLife volunteers took part in our second survey and our first results are out now. Read about them here. Rural voices heard as first RuralCovidLife results published Over 3,000 people, aged 16-96, from across rural Scotland took part in our RuralCovidLife survey. Find out the results of our survey here. Five Genes found associated with most severe form of Covid-19 The new results have helped to identify new potential treatments for Covid-19. Genetic information from over 20,000 Generation Scotland volunteers played a vital role in the findings. Young people found to have poorer mental health during COVID-19 Generation Scotland and CovidLife volunteer data supports new findings that certain groups are more at risk of poorer mental health during COVID-19 than others. Teen CovidLife: The results of Surveys 1 and 2 Over 5,000 young people in Scotland took part in our TeenCovidLife survey. We've brought together the first and second set of results. Study finds new indicators to determine severity of coronavirus (COVID-19) Research, involving Generation Scotland, has found 27 new biomarkers which help to indicate mild and severe forms of coronavirus (COVID-19). Initial results of CovidLife survey released We've brought together the results of over 14,000 volunteer responses, to the CovidLife survey, in our first report. Read more about our findings here. Generation Scotland set to expand thanks to new funding Thanks to major new funding from the Wellcome Trust our team has expanded and will soon be looking for more volunteers Link found between synaesthesia and schizophrenia Grapheme-coloured synaesthesia is a condition where people associate letters and numbers with specific colours. Researchers found this type of synaesthesia to share some of its biology with schizophrenia. Scottish Genetic Landscape Echoes the DNA of Past Kingdoms Generation Scotland volunteer data has helped discover that the genetics of people across Scotland today still has similarities to distant ancestors. Evidence of heart injury found in Generation Scotland volunteers Researchers suggest a £10 test could be used as an early-warning system to avoid future health problems. This article was published on 2024-05-06
