On behalf of the whole Generation Scotland team, let me start by thanking you all for your continuing support throughout 2021. You answered over 50,000 questionnaires! You contributed to 15 full research publications with more under review, and you supported vital work on the Covid pandemic. Our latest research You can also follow our social […]

What’s in a name? Why are we called Generation Scotland? The Scotland bit is pretty clear. We are all about the health and well-being of the people of Scotland. Why is a study in Scotland important and valuable? We have our fair share (and in some respects an unfair share) of the health problems found […]

My name is Heather, and I am a Reader in Neuroimaging – brain scanning – at the University of Edinburgh. I have always had a passion for finding out what our brains look like, and how something so grey, mushy, and innocuous-looking as the brain can make us human; formulate memories, guide decisions and behaviour, […]

A key message coming through from the Covid-19 pandemic is that we need to pay equal attention to our well-being, mental and physical health. It was not so long ago that opening up to mental health issues was seen as a sign of weakness. Now it is a sign of emotional strength. There is heightened […]

Before Covid-19, I had recently started a job working as the Generation Scotland Questionnaire Officer, where I was tasked with creating the online questionnaires that we send to old and new Generation Scotland volunteers. I had only just started thinking about what’s important to ask our volunteers when Covid-19 hit. We had to put our […]

Generation Scotland tackles important questions about health risk. What matters most: nature (genetic and biological factors) or nurture (environmental and social factors)? With rare exceptions, the evidence almost always points to a combination of both. Here’s why. Some medical conditions really are only down to genetics. We know of about 5,000 different examples. Most are […]

Thanks to vaccination, the number of new cases in hospital has plummeted, but the NHS is still under pressure. Long Covid is a worry. It’s a condition described as people who haven’t recovered by 12 weeks after first showing signs and symptoms of Covid-19. Every extra day spent in an ICU or a hospital bed […]

This picture was taken at a get-together on 20th February 2016. I am about four rows from the front standing next to a classmate from primary school in a bright red jacket. We hadn’t seen each other since I left school. The event? A reunion of members of the Aberdeen Children of the Nineteen Fifties, […]

Hi! I joined Generation Scotland in May 2021 as a Recruitment Co-ordinator. At the time of writing this post I’m still brand new (with tags). My aims within this role are to oversee the recruitment of thousands more volunteers to Generation Scotland (no pressure). We’re particularly looking for young adults aged 12 and up who […]

Hi, I’m Cliff, and I’ve been working in IT since 2001. I currently work as a Data Linkage Officer for Generation Scotland. I’ve been building our new survey website to make it easy for our volunteers to share views and opinions with us.  We plan to move away from long surveys, covering many topics, to […]