UK Biobank initial imaging study frequently asked questions

The UK Biobank imaging study aims to collect brain, heart and abdomen scans from 100,000 participants. It is the largest study of its kind in the world. Performing whole body imaging at this scale is unprecedented and will allow researchers to identify associations between lifestyle, genetic factors and participants’ observable traits identified through imaging, and explore how these affect disease risk.

We are inviting you to take part in the imaging study because you are a UK Biobank participant and you agreed that we could invite you to future research activities to enhance the UK Biobank data resource.

You have been invited to the imaging centre that is nearest to you to make the travelling distance as reasonable as possible (our centres are located in Stockport, Newcastle upon Tyne, Reading and Bristol).

The UK Biobank imaging study will capture images of the human body during times of both good and ill health. These images when combined with the lifestyle and genetic data you have already provided will enable approved scientists to understand changes in the body and our major organs over time to better prevent and treat a range of diseases, such as heart disease and dementia.

Research findings through use of these data are already emerging, revealing insights, for example, on how depression can affect the structure of our brains, how fat is stored in our bodies and around our organs, and how pollution affects the shape and function of our hearts, with many more discoveries to come.

Find out more about the value of imaging for health research here: https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/get-involved/imaging-project 

To book an appointment, please call the UK Biobank Participant Resource Centre (PRC) on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). The PRC team will check your eligibility to attend by asking you some questions about your medical history (this takes five to ten minutes). This is to ensure that you can safely attend an imaging appointment.

Our friendly, professional Participant Resource Centre staff will be delighted to talk to you as soon as possible about attending an imaging appointment. However, we realise that people have busy lives and so if you are unable to get in touch with us straight away, please do not worry. We will send you reminders about the study over the coming months, so please get in touch when it is a convenient time for you. The UK Biobank Participant Resource Centre can be contacted on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm).

Yes. If you are interested, please do not worry if you cannot attend straight away. We do understand that you may have other commitments. We can usually offer appointments up to three months in advance and these are generally available between 8am and 3.20pm, seven days a week. We will send you reminders about joining the study if you are unable to attend due to other commitments, so please just contact us when it is convenient for you.

Yes, you can still book an appointment. However, if you have just had surgery, you will need to wait until at least six weeks after your operation before taking part. Our Participant Resource Centre staff will help you to find a suitable date and time to attend. Please call us on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm) to discuss this.

Yes, you can attend if you are blind or visually impaired. Simply let us know when you call to book your appointment, so that we can ensure that we can fully support your visit.

It is not possible to wear a hearing aid in the MRI scanner and it is important that you can hear instructions from our staff when on the scanner. Unfortunately, if you will need a hearing aid to be able to listen to our staff while in the scanner, you will not be able to attend.

You will need to be able to walk to the scanner unaided and get yourself undressed and dressed to be able to participate in the scans. If you have restricted mobility, please call our Participant Resource Centre on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm) so that we can discuss what you might require in terms of assistance to be able to take part.

We are inviting UK Biobank participants to their nearest imaging centre, so as to make the travel to the centre as reasonable as possible. However, we realise that this may involve more than two hours of travel each way for some participants. Therefore, we do offer support with travel expenses. Please visit www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/travel-expenses-policy for full details of our travel expenses policy.

If you are travelling by train, you can arrange a free taxi transfer between the local railway station and the imaging centre (except for Bristol where there is no free taxi provision, but taxi fees can be claimed back). Details on how to arrange this are included in your appointment confirmation letter. There is also free car parking available at each of our centres.  If you need to park elsewhere, you can claim car parking costs (but not fines). If you would like to talk to us about your travel, please call our Participant Resource Centre on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm).

Please familiarise yourself with the location of the centre before you travel and allow plenty of time on the day of your appointment to ensure that you arrive on time. Our imaging centres are generally open between 8am and 8.30pm. You can call our Participant Resource Centre if you are having difficulties locating the centre or believe that you may arrive late.

The imaging centres were very costly to set up, at around £1.5M per centre, and due to these high costs, we are only able to open four centres across the UK. These are located within the most reasonable travelling distance for the majority of our participants. This may result in you having to travel further to take part than when you originally signed up to the study. We will cover your reasonable travel expenses, which you can claim back via a travel expenses form that we will give to you at your appointment. Full details of the expenses you can claim are included in our travel expenses policy.

We have imaging centres in Stockport, Newcastle upon Tyne, Reading and Bristol and you are welcome to attend whichever of these centres is most convenient for you. Please call the Participant Resource Centre to discuss this on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm).

Yes, but any family member or friend that attends with you will be unable to be present in every room with you, especially when completing the scans. There is some space with free Wi-Fi where your companion can wait in the reception area and we can offer tea and coffee to them. However, the reception area can get busy and the chairs are only adequate for sitting for short periods, so we do recommend that your companion arranges to do something outside the centre while you attend your four- to five-hour appointment.

We try to accommodate this wherever possible, booking appointments for the same time and date. However, it may be the case that you are eligible to take part and your partner is not (or vice versa), due to health reasons or having had a medical procedure that makes one of you ineligible. We will check this when you call the Participant Resource Centre to book your appointment (on 0800 0 276 276), as we will ask both you and your partner a series of questions to assess your eligibility to take part in the imaging scans.

Your partner can attend with you for moral support even if they are ineligible to attend the imaging study themselves. However, please bear in mind that we have limited facilities on site, and so we often recommend they arrange to do something outside the centre, such as visiting local shops or a café, during the longer elements of your appointment.

Just let us know.  We will gladly rearrange your appointment if you are unable to attend for any reason. Please do not decline participation or fail to attend without speaking to us. Simply call the Participant Resource Centre on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm), providing as much notice as possible, and we will re-book your appointment for a future date.

Please bring the following items with you to make your visit smoother and more comfortable:

• Your appointment confirmation letter and the enclosed directions (to help you find the imaging centre);
• The name and address of your GP surgery;
• A list of your current medications;
• Brief details of your medical history, including a list of any surgical procedures;
• Shoes/slippers that are easy to put on and take off and warm socks as the floor can be cold between rooms – we have blankets on site, so please ask for one if you feel cold;
• Any glasses you may have for both long and short distance, especially for completing on-screen tasks;
• Details of your eyesight/glasses prescription if you have one in case we need to loan you glasses whilst you are in the MRI scanner;
• A pot and solution to store hard contact lenses if you wear them, as we will ask you to remove these during your scans. If you wear soft, non-tinted contact lenses, these can be worn during the scans;
• If you wear any sort of skin patch (e.g. for nicotine, hormone or other replacement therapy), please bring a spare patch with you to reapply at the end of your appointment as you will be asked to remove any patches before you have your imaging scans;
• If you bring a companion, we suggest they bring something to read while they wait for you.

Some tips on what not to bring/do:

• We have lockers on site, but for peace of mind you may want to leave valuable belongings such as jewellery at home.
• Please wear clothing that you can change out of and into easily.
• Please leave at home or in the locker any metal items such as hair clips, grips and watches. You will also be asked to leave items such as metal dentures, hearing aids and spectacles in the secure locker provided for you.
• Please do not wear make-up, especially eyeliner or mascara – this will help as you are required to remove this prior to having an MRI scan.
• Try to wear minimal or no items of jewellery as this will affect the quality of the images, and ensure that you are able to remove all piercings for the scans. You may be allowed to wear jewellery made from a precious metal, for example a gold wedding ring, if you cannot remove it.
• Please ensure that your underpants do not contain Lycra, Spandex, metal fastenings or jewels.
• Please remove dark or glittery nail polish before attending the visit, as this may contain metallic elements which could affect the scanning machines.

Please do not attend your imaging clinic appointment if you have an infection which might affect or be transmitted to those around you, for example a respiratory infection (such as COVID-19, a cold or influenza), vomiting and diarrhoea, or shingles. If this is the case, please call our Participant Resource Centre on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm) and we will be able to rearrange your appointment for a later date.   

If you wear a glucose monitor, you will be asked to remove this at the start of your appointment and re-attach it yourself afterwards, as our staff cannot do this for you. You will be welcome to use our facilities – e.g. a private room, sharps bin and dressings – to help you do this.

Please be prepared to spend four to five hours at the imaging centre. Simple complimentary refreshments (such as hot drinks, fruit and sandwiches) will be provided during your visit.

We will provide you with basic complimentary refreshments (such as hot drinks, fruit and sandwiches) during your visit, but you are also welcome to bring your own food and claim up to £5 in expenses for this. Please inform us of any dietary requirements you may have in advance.

We can provide your companion with hot drinks during your visit, but we may not have enough sandwiches to provide a meal for them and would therefore advise that they bring their own food with them or go out for food while they are waiting for you.

There is no need to avoid eating before you attend, and simple refreshments (such as sandwiches, fruit, tea and coffee) will be provided halfway through your visit (regardless of the appointment start time). However, if you feel you will be hungry and cannot wait for over two hours, please eat before your visit. If your appointment is at lunchtime, please consider eating before you arrive as you will need to be ready to begin at your appointment time. If you have specific dietary requirements, please let us know in advance of your visit.

Your appointment will involve a combination of physical measures, sample collection, questionnaire completion and imaging scans of your heart and abdomen, brain, bones and neck arteries.

There are minimal breaks between activities to ensure that we can keep your appointment to time and that the day runs smoothly for all of our participants. Please see below an example schedule for the imaging visit (although the order might vary):

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. These use painless magnetic fields to take detailed pictures of the inside of the body (your organs, tissues and bones). We would like to take two scans: one of your brain and one of your heart and body (mainly covering the abdomen). The scanners are similar to those used in the NHS but are wider so that they are more comfortable. MRI scanners can be quite loud, but lots of our participants find these noises relaxing and many participants do fall asleep on the scanning bed. We provide you with ear plugs which help to reduce the noise. The sounds change depending on which part of your body is being imaged.
• Brain MRI scan. This will provide information about the structure and function of the brain; for example, which parts of the brain are important for carrying out certain tasks and how different parts of the brain are connected.
• Heart and body MRI scan. This will provide information on the size of the heart chambers and blood vessels, and changes in the size of the heart as it beats. It will also provide detailed information on the amount and distribution of fat in the body.
• Neck artery ultrasound scan. This uses ultrasound (high frequency sound waves) to produce images of the blood vessels on either side of the neck. These images will help scientists study any narrowing of these major blood vessels.
• Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan. This uses low-energy X-rays (the same amount as about one week’s worth of natural background X-rays) to measure bone density throughout the body. Detailed pictures of the spine, hips and knees will help scientists to study diseases like osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) and arthritis.

Many of our participants attending a UK Biobank imaging centre appointment have never had an MRI scan before. As we are taking scans for a research study, our staff can spend more time getting you comfortable than staff in a clinical setting may be able to do. Our scanners are 27 inches wider than those used in hospitals and have an open back, so sometimes your head will be outside of the scanner. We can always see you and talk to you.

Some of our participants have also told us that attending an MRI scan for a research study, rather than due to ill health, has reassured them of the process should they ever be required to have one for health reasons.  With around 70,000 participants already scanned, claustrophobia has not been an issue that has stopped many participants from taking part.

We would need you to confirm that you are willing and able to complete all of the scans before we book you an appointment. That said, the visit is entirely voluntary and if you really do not feel happy and comfortable about a measure on the day, you can opt out. Having a complete set of data on each participant is very valuable to us; we will therefore try our best to support you to take part in the full assessment, and we have found that we are able to do so with nearly all of our participants.

Attending a UK Biobank imaging visit should not cause you any harm. All of the scans are quick, painless and safe.

The MRI scanners are powerful magnets, so we take extra care to ensure that no metal objects enter the scanning room.

The DXA bone scan involves a very low dose of radiation, the same amount as a standard X-ray and four times less than a transatlantic flight.

MRI machines make loud and repetitive noises when in use. While some MRI sequences will make particularly loud noises for a short period (above 85Db), most of the sequences do not. We provide high-quality earplugs that reduce the noise to safe levels (in line with all relevant health and safety regulations). There are no known long-term negative effects on hearing as a result of having these sorts of imaging scans. 

The visit is not a health check and is not intended to diagnose disease. The scans are for research purposes only, and so our radiographers only review the images for their quality rather than for diagnostic purposes. Therefore, in most cases participants receive no follow-up feedback from us; in fact, fewer than 2% of participants will be notified of a potential abnormality.

However, if a serious, potentially life-threatening abnormality is spotted on your scans, we will refer these to a specialist imaging doctor (a radiologist) for review.

If the radiologist agrees that the abnormality is potentially serious (regardless of whether or not it might be treatable), we will write to you and your GP, usually within a few weeks of your visit. Please note that we are not able to provide you or your GP with copies of scans.

If the radiographer happens to notice a potentially serious abnormality while taking your scans, they will refer your scans after your visit to a specialist imaging doctor (a radiologist) for review.

If the radiologist agrees that the abnormality is potentially serious (regardless of whether or not it might be treatable), we will write to you and your GP, usually within a few weeks of your visit. Depending on the abnormality, your GP may refer you to specialists for further investigation and treatment. Please note that we are not able to provide you or your GP with copies of scans.

Some abnormalities found on scans might never have been noticed otherwise (especially if they never caused you any problems). Other abnormalities might have come to light weeks, months or even years later. Finding abnormalities on scans can lead to an earlier diagnosis, which can be helpful for some conditions. But sometimes it can lead to unnecessary anxiety, investigations and treatments.

You can only take part in the imaging study if you agree that we can tell both you and your GP if we notice a potentially serious abnormality on one of your scans. If you feel that the anxiety of being told about an abnormality or the disruption to your life caused by further investigations is likely to outweigh any benefit to you, it might be better not to take part in the imaging study.

At the end of your visit, we will give you some summary information which includes a few of the measurements taken during your visit (blood pressure, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, body fat percentage and lung function, if measured). We will not provide any other results or images from the scans; this is in accordance with the consent you provided when you agreed to take part in UK Biobank.

It is important to understand that this visit is not a health check. The scans are being undertaken for research purposes only and the resulting images are not therefore systematically reviewed by a doctor.

However, if a serious, potentially life-threatening abnormality happens to be spotted by the radiographer while undertaking your scans, we will refer these to a specialist imaging doctor (a radiologist) for review.

If the radiologist agrees that the abnormality is potentially serious (regardless of whether or not it might be treatable), we will write to you and your GP, usually within a few weeks of your visit. Depending on the abnormality, your GP may refer you to specialists for further investigation and treatment. Please visit our website for more details.

We will store information and samples from your visit (for example, scans and blood samples) for many years. The de-identified information will only be used by researchers approved by UK Biobank to conduct medical and other health-related research. These include scientists working in other countries and in commercial companies.

We put the results from all research projects carried out using UK Biobank data back into our database for other researchers to use. Scientists must also make public the results of all research based on UK Biobank data so that everyone can benefit from them. You can find details of research that is being done using the UK Biobank resource and related publications on our website at https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/publications/ and https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/approved-research/

We have the following strict measures in place to protect your confidentiality, which should prevent identifiable information from being used – inadvertently or deliberately – for any purpose other than to support this study:

• We do not include any details that will identify you in any information or samples we provide to researchers. Furthermore, all the brain scans are ‘defaced’ so that researchers using these scans will not be able to tell your identity from these data.
• We keep any information that might identify you (such as your name and address) separately from other information about you in our database.
• We use advanced computer security technologies to prevent unauthorised access to the computers that hold your personal information.
• We operate quality and information security management systems that support the collection, processing, storage and analysis of biological samples and data for research into genetic and environmental factors that impact on human health and disease. The systems are audited and certified by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 respectively. You can view the status of our certifications for the various sites by searching for ‘UK Biobank’ at this link: www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/validate-bsi-issued-certificates/.
• We also follow the guidance contained in the UK Government’s ten cyber security steps.
• We restrict access to personal information as much as possible, and all staff working for us sign confidentiality agreements as part of their employment contracts.

The way in which UK Biobank collects, shares and uses your information is explained on our website at: www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/explore-your-participation/basis-of-yourparticipation

This includes an explanation of the way in which we protect your data and remove any personal identifiers before making data available to researchers.