BMC Public Health Study protocol Psychological, social and biological determinants of ill health (pSoBid): Study Protocol of a population-based study Yoga N Velupillai*1, Chris J Packard2, G David Batty3, Vladimir Bezlyak4, Harry Burns5, Jonathan Cavanagh6, Kevin Deans7, Ian Ford4, Agnes McGinty8, Keith Millar6, Naveed Sattar9, Paul Shiels10 and Carol Tannahill1 BioMed Central Open Access Address: 1Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Level 6, 39 St Vincent Place, Glasgow, G1 2ER, UK, 2NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Dept. Vascular Biochemistry, 4th Floor University Block, 10 Alexandra Parade, Glasgow, G31 2ER, UK, 3MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, 4 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8RZ, UK, 4Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, University of Glasgow, Level 11, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK, 5Scottish Executive, St. Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, UK, 6Section of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine – University of Glasgow, Gartnavel Royal Hospital, 1055 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 0XH, UK, 7NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry, Macewen Building, 84 Castle Street, Glasgow, G4 0SF, UK, 8Rosehill, Munros Street, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, G83 0PU6, UK, 9University of Glasgow, Division of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences based at Vascular Biochemistry, 4th Floor QEB, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 10 Alexandra Parade, Glasgow, G31 2ER, UK and 10University of Glasgow, Faculty of Medicine, University Dept. Surgery, Level 2, Q.E.B, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 10 Alexandra Parade, G31 2ER, UK Email: Yoga N Velupillai* - Yoga.Velupillai@drs.glasgow.gov.uk; Chris J Packard - chris.packard@btinternet.com; G David Batty - david- b@sphsu.mrc.ac.uk; Vladimir Bezlyak - vladimir@stats.gla.ac.uk; Harry Burns - cmo@scotland.gsi.gov.uk; Jonathan Cavanagh - J.Cavanagh@clinmed.gla.ac.uk; Kevin Deans - kevindeans@nhs.net; Ian Ford - ian@stats.gla.ac.uk; Agnes McGinty - A.McGinty@clinmed.gla.ac.uk; Keith Millar - K.Millar@clinmed.gla.ac.uk; Naveed Sattar - nsattar@clinmed.gla.ac.uk; Paul Shiels - p.sheils@clinmed.gla.ac.uk; Carol Tannahill - carol.tannahill@drs.glasgow.gov.uk * Corresponding author Published: 21 April 2008 BMC Public Health 2008, 8:126 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-126 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/126 Received: 7 February 2008 Accepted: 21 April 2008 © 2008 Velupillai et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Disadvantaged communities suffer higher levels of physical and mental ill health than more advantaged communities. The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychosocial, behavioural and biological determinants of ill health within population groups in Glasgow that differed in socioeconomic status and in their propensity to develop chronic disease especially coronary heart disease and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: Participants were selected at random from areas known to be at the extremes of the socioeconomic continuum in Glasgow. Within the categories of least deprived and most deprived, recruitment was stratified by sex and age to achieve an overall sample containing approximately equal numbers of males and females and an even distribution across the age categories 35–44, 45– 54 and 55–64 years. Individuals were invited by letter to attend for assessment of their medical history, risk factor status, cognitive function and psychological profile, morbidity, and carotid intima-media thickness and plaque count as indices of atherosclerosis. Anonymised data on study subjects were collected from the General Practice Administration System for Scotland to analyse characteristics of participants and non-participants. Page 1 of 11 (page number not for citation purposes)