ALICE: Adolescent Lifestyles In Contemporary Europe

The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK taxpayer. It promotes research into all areas of medical and related science with the aims of improving the health and quality of life of the UK public.

The MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit's aim is to: Promote human health by the study of social and environmental influences on health. Specific objectives include:
• Studying how people's social positions, and their social and physical environments, influence their physical and mental health and capacity to lead healthy lives;

• Designing and evaluating interventions aiming to improve public health and reduce social inequalities in health, and;

• Influencing policy and practice by communicating the results and implications of research.

The Unit is funded by the Medical Research Council and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) at the The Scottish Government Health Department, and is based at the University of Glasgow.

All S1, S2 and S3 pupils in seven selected secondary schools from two education departments representing smaller urban areas within the Scottish central belt were invited to take part in 'ALIC'. The schools were selected to be representative of the local population in terms of socio-economic status. For more details go to the Study Design section of this website.

2,937 pupils completed baseline questionnaires in 2010. For more details go to the Study Design section of this website.

Approval to conduct 'ALICE' was given by the University of Glasgow's Faculty of Law, Business & Social Sciences Ethics Committee, each of the two relevant local authority education departments, and the head-teachers of all selected schools. Permission for individual pupils to take part was first obtained from parents, using standard (opt-out) consent forms. Participating pupils then completed consent forms themselves to indicate whether they wanted to take part. Copies of the parents' and pupils' information sheets and consent forms can be found in the Pupils and Parents section of this Website.

Researchers from outside the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit may apply to the study's principal researchers for permission to access specified sections of the data for particular analysis, in collaboration with one or more members of the study team.