Renaming of Variables in the Surveys 1 and 2 for 1989-95 Cohort

Some variables in the first two waves of the 1989-95 cohort have been renamed to achieve consistency with the Data Dictionary and within all the 1989-95 surveys.  This was done in April 2016.  Some of the variable names in this cohort had become inconsistent with the Data Dictionary Index Numbers, which are the standard reference for variables, and also between the various waves of the surveys.

The variables in this cohort are different from the other cohorts’ variables in that they do not have paper questionnaire names, e.g., in the 1973-78 cohort y6q18 is the variable for the 18th question in the sixth wave of this (Young) cohort.   The 1989-95 cohort data have different variable names that are from the Data Dictionary Index Numbers. For example, the question ‘In general, would you say your health is …‘ has Index Number SF36-001 and the variable is named SF36001.   However, the first two surveys, as they were initially released, had some variables that ended up with names that were not from the Data Dictionary Index Numbers and therefore they have been renamed so they are consistent with the Data Dictionary.

Variable G1_HSRV201 changed to HSRV201

(“Where do you get information about your health? Other”)

ALCS032 changed to ALCS033    

(“Have you ever drunk alcohol?”)

The first example above removes the prefix ‘G1_’ because it has no meaning in the analysis data set and removing it matches the variable with the Data Dictionary Index Number.  The second example had a misleading name since the Data Dictionary Index Number was ALCS-033 but the variable was labelled ALCS032 – not a good name since the Data Dictionary Index number ALCS-032 is for another variable altogether.

After this variable name change all the questionnaire variables are now named the same as their Data Dictionary Index name.   This is not necessarily true for the derived variables, that is, those not on the questionnaire.  The derived variables have names that are designed for easy reference.  For example, the BMI variable is called ‘BMI’ on the data set, but its Index Number on the Data Dictionary is WTSH-088.

Note that the variables ending in ‘TEXT’ with a number, e.g. ‘TEXT2’ , have all had their final number removed.
In Survey 2 there were some renamed variables in the Composite Abuse Scale that were not included in an earlier version of this document. These were variables whose names both needed to be changed from and also variables were renamed to these names.  For example, CASC128 is the new name for what was called CASC119, furthermore, the variable that was called CASC128 is now changed to CASC140. These variables are now all in the lists below.

This table has all the variables that were renamed in Survey 1 of the 1989-95 cohort. 

This table has all the variables that were renamed in Survey 2 of the 1989-95 cohort.