Health and Well-being Questionnaire FAQs

UK Biobank questionnaires are participant-specific and the data collected from questionnaires are linked to other data previously provided by you. It is therefore important that your questionnaire (sent to you by email or accessed via your profile on the participant website) is only completed by you. Sometimes participants share email addresses or devices with other members of their household and this has, on occasion, led to questionnaires being completed by someone other than the intended recipient. We use your date of birth to double-check that the questionnaire has been completed by the correct person before releasing the data to researchers.

We ask you to complete this again in case an error was made the first time or in case someone else, for example someone you share an email address with, started your questionnaire or tries to use a link to a partially completed questionnaire.

Because of the global interest in the work of UK Biobank, questionnaires developed for UK Biobank are shared with researchers around the world for use in their own research. So that researchers can choose which sets of questions they ask in their research studies (rather than having to administer a full UK Biobank questionnaire), our questionnaires are split up into modules which are accessed via the menu.

Please click on the ‘Show question numbers’ button (situated towards the bottom of the page, after the block of questions) to display the question numbers.

Please open the module and then simply click ‘Save/continue’.

Please check that you are using the correct personal details and Participant ID (this can be found on most pieces of correspondence that we send to you). If you are still unsuccessful, please contact our Participant Resource Centre at ukbiobank@ukbiobank.ac.uk or on 0800 0 276 276.

Yes please. When researchers use your information, they will be able to see from your medical records (one of the sources of information that we access to ensure we capture detailed information about your medical history) that this symptom is related to a long-term issue.

Yes please. When researchers use your information, they will be able to see from your medical records (one of the sources of information that we access to ensure we capture detailed information about your medical diagnoses) that this symptom is related to a long-term issue.

No, these are just examples of gastrointestinal issues that you may be suffering from. Please say ‘yes’ if you suffer from other gastrointestinal issues too.

Please select a response that reflects the improvement. For example, if it is totally better, please say that it is not limiting you.

We are interested in any problems you are currently experiencing with your eyes which might be affecting your vision, for example sensitivity to light, soreness, burning, swollen eyes or eyelids, conjunctivitis, excess eye discharge or ‘pink eye’.

Tinnitus is the name for hearing ringing or buzzing that comes from inside your ears, rather than from an outside source.

We are interested in any other hearing issues, for example balance problems or dizziness, or middle ear congestion (which might cause a feeling of ‘underwater’ hearing).

Chest pain is discomfort or pain that you feel anywhere along the front of your body between your neck and upper abdomen. Pain on breathing is pain that only occurs when you are taking a breath.

Bone pain is extreme tenderness, aching or other discomfort in one or more of your bones. It differs from muscle and joint pain because it is present all the time, i.e. whether you are moving or not.

For the purposes of this questionnaire, a persistent cough is defined as coughing many times a day, for half a day or more. It may be a dry cough, or you may cough up mucus (sputum) with a productive cough.

These are very similar symptoms. Chest tightness is a tight feeling that may be felt all over the chest area or located in one spot or several spots in the chest. Chest pressure/heaviness refers to a feeling of squeezing or weight pressing down on your chest.

We are interested in any kind of issues that mean that you are unlikely to be getting a 'full’ night of sleep or less sleep than you would like to get. These include problems falling asleep, frequent waking, waking and being unable to get back to sleep and waking earlier than usual.

This refers to the feeling of being only half-asleep or of not sleeping deeply. It includes constant stirring because your mind is racing, frustration with the inability to sleep soundly or not being able to fall back asleep quickly after waking up unexpectedly.

This questionnaire focusses on symptoms that you may currently be experiencing, rather than diseases, conditions or syndromes. Many of the common symptoms of acute or long COVID are covered in this questionnaire so please tell us about these.