Behaviour	HALS 1984	HSFE 1993
Smoking	Question wording	Question wording
	“Do you regularly smoke cigarettes, that is do you regularly smoke at least one cigarette a day.”	“Do you smoke cigarettes at all nowadays?”
No sport		Wording	Wording
		“In the last fortnight, have you done any of the activities on this card? Keep fit, yoga, cycling, golf, swimming, table tennis, basketball, football, rugby, badminton, tennis, squash, cricket, sailing, self defence, boxing, hiking, dancing.”	“Can you tell me if you have done any of the activities on this card during the last 4 weeks? Keep fit, gymnastics, aerobics, exercises (sit ups, press ups etc), exercise bike, cycling, swimming, , football, rugby, badminton, tennis, squash, weight training, running, jogging, fitness dancing, other dancing, other sports (specify)”.
		“Have you done any other physical activities in the last fortnight?” (this list includes a large number of more unusual active pursuits)	“Can you tell me on how many separate occasions did you ( . . .) during the past 4 weeks?” “How much time did you usually spend ( . . .) on each occasion?” “During the past 4 weeks was the effort of ( . . .) usually enough to make you out of breath or sweaty?”
		“How many times have you ( . . .) in the last fortnight? “On average, how long did you spend doing it each time?” “Did any of these activities make you out of breath?”
		Coding	Coding
		Unless respondent answered yes to one of these, they were coded as doing no sport.	A derived variable is included in the data set which classifies respondents' levels of activity: those coded as ‘inactive’ were the group of interest here.
Vegetables less than once a day	Question wording	Question wording
		“I am going to read out a list of foods. Using this card, please tell me how often you eat each of them.”	“I would like to ask you about some foods which you may eat. Can you tell me how often on average you eat each of these foods by choosing your answer from this card”
		Items	Items
		Salads or raw veg. in summer	Vegetables or salad.
		Salads or raw veg. in winter
		Green vegetables
		Coding	Coding
		If respondent reported eating salad or raw vegetables “most days” or more in winter, or if they reported eating salad less often than this and also green vegetables less than “most days” in the week, this was coded as vegetables less than once a day.	Unless respondent indicated “Once every day” or “more than once every day” they were coded as eating vegetables less than once a day.
Use of high fat milk	Wording	Wording
		“What sort of milk do you usually use?”	“What kind of milk do you usually use for drinks, in tea or coffee and on cereals etc?
		Items
		Sterilised/UHT/silver top; gold top; skimmed or semi skimmed; evaporated; powdered (specify)”	Is it . . . whole milk; semi skimmed; skimmed; or some other kind of milk (specify)?”
		Coding	Coding
		All apart from “skimmed or semi skimmed” and powdered milk were coded as ‘high fat’.	All apart from “skimmed” and “semi skimmed” were classified as ‘high fat’.
Wholemeal is not main bread	Wording	Wording
		“What kind of bread do you eat?” White; granary/ wholemeal/ brown; wholemeal; crispbreads; pitta-white; pitta-wholemeal; nan, chapatis	“What kind of bread do you usually eat? Is it .. white; brown, granary, wheatmeal; wholemeal; some other kind of bread”
		Coding	Coding
		If any other than wholemeal was mentioned as the most frequently eaten bread.	If any other than wholemeal was reported to be the one most usually eaten.
Fruit in diet		“I am going to read out a list of foods. Using this card, please tell me how often you eat each of them.”	“I would like to ask you about some foods which you may eat. Can you tell me how often on average you eat each of these foods by choosing your answer from this card” Fruit.
		Fresh fruit in summer
		Fresh fruit in winter
		Coding: if fruit in summer is coded other than as “once a day” or “more than once a day”, respondent is coded as eating fruit less than once a day	Coding: if respondent does not indicate “Once every day” or “more than once every day”, this is coded as eating fruit less than once a day
Severe lack of social support	Wording	Wording
		There are members of my family (friends) who	“There are people I know—amongst my family or friends—who:–
		“make me feel loved”	“do things to make me happy”
		“do things to make me feel happy”	“make me feel loved”
		“can be relied on no matter what happens”	“can be relied on no matter what happens”
		“would see that I am taken care of if I needed to be”	“would see that I am taken care of if I needed to be”
		“accept me just as I am”	“accept me just as I am”
		“make me feel an important part of their lives”	“make me feel an important part of their lives”
		“give me support and encouragement”	“give me support and encouragement”
		Respondents were asked to score each statement as	Respondents were asked to score each statement as
		Not true; partly true; certainly true.	Not true; partly true; certainly true.