Approved Research

Risk factors and prognosis of common mental disorders

Lay summary

Aims: Our study aims to investigate what risk factors are associated with mental disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression, and dementia) and whether these disorders could increase the risk of poor prognosis (e.g., higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases and death), independent of other risk factors. Scientific rationale: Mental disorders affect a large growing population worldwide. Many factors could be involved in the development of these disorders, such as education, diet, occupation, commute mode, physical activity, loneliness, subjective well-being, sleep, co-morbidities and medications. However, whether these factors was directly linked with in the development of these disorders are not clear so far. In addition, there is insufficient evidence on the long-term outcomes of mental disorders (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases and mortality). As such, we intend to conduct some research using UKB data to clarify these issues. Project duration: This project includes several independent analyses. We expect to achieve some initial milestones in the next 36 months. Public health impact: Our study may promote clinical and public health policy priorities by further identifying lifestyle and environment risk factors of mental disorders and clarifying the roles of these mental diseases and multiple risk factors in the development of the health-related outcomes.