We are delighted to share the news that the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust‘s UK-REACH project has become the latest longitudinal population study (LPS) to partner with the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (LLC).
Led by Chief Investigator Manish Pareek, Clinical Professor in Infectious Diseases and Director of the Development Centre for Population Health at the University of Leicester, the UK-REACH study is the first LPS to join the UK LLC since approval was granted for wider research applications in the public good.
Across the U.K., the UK-REACH study investigates how ethnicity affects COVID-19 clinical outcomes for healthcare workers, holding data on over 18,000 participants who work in the healthcare sector. These staff members were recruited during and throughout the pandemic, with approximately 30% of people being from an ethnic minority background. The study holds detailed demographic and occupational data, as well as a wide range of health and wellbeing information. At UK LLC, this data will be linked with participants’ health, socioeconomic, demographic and locality data. The combination of this information provides a much deeper understanding of factors impacting health and wellbeing, allowing researchers to identify patterns and themes and address new research questions. It is anticipated that any U.K. accredited researcher will be able to apply to access UK-REACH data from Autumn 2026.
As Director of UK LLC, Andy Boyd recognised the achievements of the Trust and University’s staff members, saying: “I’m delighted to extend a warm welcome to all the team at UK-REACH. The data that UK-REACH has been collecting from healthcare workers since 2021 is incredibly valuable to better understand the differences in clinical outcomes for people from ethnic minority backgrounds. We are extremely grateful to the participants who volunteered to be part of this study and allow information about their own health and wellbeing to contribute to public good research.”
Professor Pareek says, “I’m very pleased that UK-REACH has now joined UK LLC, and I want to thank all our participants for their continued involvement and support. Understanding the health and wellbeing of healthcare staff from diverse occupational and demographic groups is critically important. By studying these issues in depth, we will be able to develop policies and interventions that improve working conditions for the healthcare workforce.”
Congratulations to the UHL, UoL and UK LLC teams!