Understanding Society User Support

Dear UKHLS support team;

I am an associate lecturer in Geography and Population Health at the University of St Andrews and I was interested in linking air pollution and climate data such as air temperature and relative humidity to the understanding society teaching dataset for a module that I will be giving starting September 2024.

I have previously used for my own research the researcher dataset and I had access to local authorities and Lower Super Output Areas which I used to link the environmental data on air pollution and climate to the UKHLS dataset and carry my analysis which investigated the association between air pollution and health and life satisfaction. However, the teaching dataset does not allow for such a linkage because the lowest geography level provided in that file is regional areas. This created a hurdle for me to use the data for my teaching module.

Having explained the above, I am sending this enquiry to ask whether there is any chance that I get local authorities with the teaching dataset to link the air pollution and climate data I need. I can delete the column which has the local authorities after the data linkage is done and provide that file to the students to practice with and carry out their assignments. Is there a possibility that this would be accomplished somehow?

I can also supply the environmental data that I need to link to the teaching dataset to the UKHLS team to link it for me at the local authority level if this could work.

I hope that a solution for my problem can be found so that students can use the amazing and rich UKHLS data to learn in my Module.

Looking forward to hearing back from you,

All the best,
Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad
Associate Lecturer
School of Geography and sustainable development
University of St Andrews
Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom