New paper – ‘Mental health enhancement 2022: Methods and results’

A new paper published in PLOS One details UK Biobank’s second Mental Health Questionnaire (MHQ2), first released to researchers in 2022.

The paper outlines the methods used for design, data collection and validation, and provides an overview of key findings, including prevalence of mental health conditions.

More than 169,000 participants completed MHQ2, with over 110,000 having also completed MHQ1, allowing the opportunity to track changes over time. 

Among the participants who completed both:

• Harmful alcohol use decreased (relative risk 0.84)
• Current depression slightly increased (RR 1.07)
• Anxiety remained relatively stable (RR 0.98)

The data offer a unique opportunity to study mental health in mid to later life and to explore associations with genetics, lifestyle, and physical health.

Researchers can access the full open-access article here:
Mental health data in UK Biobank: Rationale, design and descriptive results

You can explore the data from MHQ2 on Showcase in Category 1500. 

The full data is available to researchers now, along with all other UK Biobank data, via the UKB-RAP.