In 2002-3, NCDS carried out its first biomedical survey. As part of this survey, nurses took a blood sample from study members who gave their consent. White blood cells from this blood have been stored to provide a renewable source of DNA for non-commercial research. In the Life in Your Early 60s Survey, during your […]

Not everyone in NCDS was part of the biomedical survey at age 44, and of those 9,377 who did take part, a total of 8,404 gave consent to their DNA being used. Therefore you could have taken part but chosen not to give your permission for DNA extraction. In the Life in Your Early 60s […]

To use DNA samples, researchers must first get clearance from a medical ethics committee. DNA extracted from blood collected during the first NCDS biomedical survey in 2002-3 can only be used for non-commercial medical research whereas DNA extracted from blood collected during the Life in Your Early 60s Survey may potentially be used by researchers […]

No, it was important that when we collected the DNA sample that we gained consent from you to use the DNA for research purposes, but also guaranteed not to reveal your individual results. This is because the way that this was done does not meet the very high clinical standards that would be required to […]