The Whitehall study is a groundâbreaking longitudinal (prospective cohort) study that clearly demonstrated the association between social determinants of health (the social gradient) and morbidity and mortality (cardiovascular disease) in a population of British civil servants (Breeze et al., 2001; Chandola et al., 2008; (Marmot et al., 1978).
Read these papers and answer the following questions.
Question 1: What is the sampling frame for the Whitehall studies?
a. Clinical and mortality records for British civil service employees
b. Employment records for the British civil service
c. 19,029 males for Whitehall I and 10,308 males and females for Whitehall II
d. British civil servants evaluated across seven phases from 1967â2004
Question 2: How was disease risk assessed (data collection and analysis) for the Marmot paper?
a. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Relative risk was calculated to assess disease risk.
b. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires, a job stress questionnaire and clinical examination. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios and logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
c. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
Question 3: How was disease risk assessed (data collection and analysis) for the Breeze paper?
a. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Relative risk was calculated to assess disease risk.
b. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires, a job stress questionnaire and clinical examination. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios and logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
c. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
Question 4: How was disease risk assessed (data collection and analysis) for the Chandola paper?
a. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Relative risk was calculated to assess disease risk.
b. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires, a job stress questionnaire and clinical examination. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios and logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
c. Data was collected using medical and behavioural questionnaires and clinical examination. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.
Question 5: Select all that apply:
When we consider whether we can generalise the results of these studies to other populations, we need to consider:
a. The gender distribution of the population
b. Ethnic diversity within the population
c. Economic similarity of the population
d. The type of work done by the people in the population
e. Whether the population is in a rural or remote location
f. The class structure of the population
Question 6: Could we use an existing Australian research study cohort, such as the 45 and Up study, to explore the same things as explored in the Whitehall studies? Why/ why not?
