The Wellcome Trust Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS) Strategy encourages integration of data from a variety of resources, including commercial data on shopping habits; and states that research methods are needed to underpin efficient linkages of multiple datasets. Our project addresses this by building on core Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children transactional data linkage program, seeking to develop a methodology for efficient integration of transactional data into LPS research.

This 14 months project will create a methodology, a software package, guidelines and three proof-of-concept studies to the use of linked transactional data in LPS. The guidelines will include the description of the full cycle of data linkage from workshops and surveys with participants about feasibly and acceptability of such data linkage, through consent campaigns, data linkage and a framework of working with linked dataset. As a part of the project we will create a software package that can integrate the data into LPS and make it usable for LPS researchers. Further, we will run exploratory and dissemination workshops with LPS researchers to first investigate utility of data linkage and second provide them with the tools to set up transactional data linkages and conduct research with transactional data. The framework of using linked transactional data with LPS developed in this research project can be rolled out to be used in other cohort studies (e.g., through Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources, CLOSER), making possible a harmonised longitudinal population studies approach for studying public health with transactional data.