Skip to main content

Table 1 Overview of commonalities and differences across study samples and consent procedures

From: Analysis of four studies in a comparative framework reveals: health linkage consent rates on British cohort studies higher than on UK household panel surveys

 

Cohort studies

Household panel studies

NSHD

NCDS

BHPS

UKHLS

Study team

MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing

National Birthday Trust Fund/Centre for Longitudinal Studies

UK Longitudinal Studies Centre

Understanding Society

Funder

MRC

National Birthday Trust Fund and ESRC

ESRC

ESRC, Department for Health, and others

Start year of the study

1946

1958

1991

2009/2010

Scope

GB

GB

GB until 2001, then UK

UK

Sample description

Born in a specific week, mainly British White

Born in a specific week, mainly British White

Cross-section of resident population in 1991, additional regional boosts

Cross-section of resident population in 2009/10, additional ethnic minority boost

Mode of interview

Postal survey with follow-up home/clinic visit

Face to face interview

Face to face interview

Face to face interview

Follow-up sequence

At specific points in time

At specific points in time

Annually

Annually

Health-related content in survey

Most

Some

Some

A little1

Number of sweeps before

    

• biomarkers collected

None

None

182

1

• consent asked

22

7

182

None

Study advance letter includes references to health record linkage

No3

Yes

Yes

No

Consent asked by

No-one if postal survey only, else by research nurse

Trained interviewer

Trained interviewer

Trained interviewer

Information leaflet about linkage

No3

Yes, provided in the interview

Yes, sent in advance

Yes, provided in the interview

Specific types of health data mentioned

GP records; Hospital records

Hospital records; GP records; prescriptions

NHS Central Register data; Hospital records; prescriptions; GP records

NHS Central Register data; Hospital records

  1. Notes:
  2. 1The UKHLS questionnaire collected a large number of subjective well-being indicators and health-related behaviours such as quality of sleep but did not collect information on use of health services as this information would be available through linkage from wave 1 onward.
  3. 2Consents were first asked in 2008, this was wave 18 for the original BHPS sample, wave 10 for the additional boost samples in Scotland and Wales (which started in 1999) and wave 8 for the additional boost sample in Northern Ireland (which started in 2001).
  4. 3This is explained by the fact that there were no explicit plans for health record linkage on the NSHD.