The 500,000 participants were assessed between 2006 and 2010 in 22 assessment centres throughout the UK, covering a variety of different settings to provide socioeconomic and ethnic heterogeneity and urban–rural mix. This ensured a broad distribution across all exposures to allow the reliable detection of generalisable associations between baseline characteristics and health outcomes. The assessment visit comprised electronic signed consent; a self-completed touch-screen questionnaire; brief computer-assisted interview; physical and functional measures; and collection of blood, urine, and saliva (Table 2). Multiple aliquots of different sample fractions are stored in UK Biobank’s automated laboratory, allowing for a wide range of future assays [10].
