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. 2023 Jun 23;13(6):e069258.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069258.

Cohort profile: rationale and methods of UK Biobank repeat imaging study eye measures to study dementia

Paul J Foster  1 , Denize Atan  2 , Anthony Khawaja  3 , Andrew Lotery  4 , Tom MacGillivray  5 , Christopher G Owen  6 , Praveen J Patel  7 , Axel Petzold  8   9 , Alicja Rudnicka  6 , Zihan Sun  10 , Simon Sheard  11 , Naomi Allen  11   12 ; UK Biobank and UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium
Collaborators, Affiliations

Cohort profile: rationale and methods of UK Biobank repeat imaging study eye measures to study dementia

Paul J Foster et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Purpose: The retina provides biomarkers of neuronal and vascular health that offer promising insights into cognitive ageing, mild cognitive impairment and dementia. This article described the rationale and methodology of eye and vision assessments with the aim of supporting the study of dementia in the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging study.

Participants: UK Biobank is a large-scale, multicentre, prospective cohort containing in-depth genetic, lifestyle, environmental and health information from half a million participants aged 40-69 enrolled in 2006-2010 across the UK. A subset (up to 60 000 participants) of the cohort will be invited to the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging Study to collect repeated brain, cardiac and abdominal MRI scans, whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, carotid ultrasound, as well as retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) and colour fundus photographs.

Findings to date: UK Biobank has helped make significant advances in understanding risk factors for many common diseases, including for dementia and cognitive decline. Ophthalmic genetic and epidemiology studies have also benefited from the unparalleled combination of very large numbers of participants, deep phenotyping and longitudinal follow-up of the cohort, with comprehensive health data linkage to disease outcomes. In addition, we have used UK Biobank data to describe the relationship between retinal structures, cognitive function and brain MRI-derived phenotypes.

Future plans: The collection of eye-related data (eg, OCT), as part of the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging study, will take place in 2022-2028. The depth and breadth and longitudinal nature of this dataset, coupled with its open-access policy, will create a major new resource for dementia diagnostic discovery and to better understand its association with comorbid diseases. In addition, the broad and diverse data available in this study will support research into ophthalmic diseases and various other health outcomes beyond dementia.

Keywords: dementia; epidemiology; ophthalmology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: PJF reports personal fees from Allergan, Carl Zeiss, Google/DeepMind and Santen, a grant from Alcon, outside the submitted work. PJP reports grants from Topcon Inc, outside the scope of the current report. AK reports personal fees from Abbvie, Aerie, Google Health, Novartis, Reichert, Santen and Thea, outside the submitted work. AP reports grant support for remyelination trials in multiple sclerosis to the Amsterdam University Medicam Centre, Department of Neurology, MS Centre (RESTORE trial) and UCL, London RECOVER trial; Fight for Sight (nimodipine in optic neuritis trial); royalties or licenses from Up-to-Date (Wolters Kluver) on a book chapter; speaker fees for the Heidelberg Academy; participation on Advisory Board SC Zeiss OCTA Angi-Network, SC Novartis OCTiMS study; equipment: OCTA from Zeiss (Plex Elite).

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