British Doctors Study-Long term follow up
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A long term prospective cohort study on the effects of smoking and prophylactic aspirin on all cause mortality in male British doctors
IRAS ID
257510
Contact name
Peter Rothwell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
DARS-NIC-147808-3F9FR-v1 MR181 , British Doctors Follow Up Study
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The British Doctors Study was the world’s first large prospective study of the effects of smoking to establish a convincing linkage between tobacco smoking and lung cancer (1954), heart attacks and chronic lung disease (1956). To recruit participants, a simple questionnaire on smoking habits was sent to all registered medical doctors practising in the UK in October 1951. Participants implicitly consented to the study by voluntarily completing and returning the questionnaire and an application for cancer registrations and cause of death for the cohort to be notified to the study centre was made to the Office of National Statistics and the cancer registry service.
Further questionnaires about changes in smoking habits were sent in 1957, 1966, 1971, 1978, 1991, 1998 and 2001. Because of the limited sample size and limited tobacco consumption, females were excluded from most reports and since 1971 the study has followed up males only. The 1978 questionnaire also asked about a wide range of characteristics (e.g. height, weight etc.) and ask those who had stopped smoking whether they had done so because they had already developed some serious respiratory or vascular disease. It also invited the cohort to participate a randomised trial of prophylactic daily aspirin to prevent death from stroke, heart attack or other vascular conditions (British Doctors Aspirin Trial-BDAT). Participants were required to have no contraindication to the use of aspirin, no regular aspirin use, stroke or myocardial infarction. Analysis of data to date has shown the extent of the reduction in risk when cigarette smoking is stopped at different ages and the effects of long term use of aspirin on the incidence of cancers. Mortality and cancer registrations will continue to be collated up to 2021 to complete follow up (it is estimated that approximately 10% of the original cohort might still be alive).REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0602
Date of REC Opinion
6 Dec 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion