BCS70 Age 51 Sweep

This survey included a repeat of the cognitive assessments administered in the age 46 survey – immediate and delayed word-list recall, animal naming and the letter cancellation test.

These tests were also administered in the age 50 National Child Development Study (allowing direct comparison with this study).

In addition to these tests, a new cognitive test was administered for the first time – the National Adult Reading Test (NART). This test involves reading aloud 50 words which have irregular spellings, meaning that the correct pronunciation could not be deduced by applying grapheme-to-phoneme rules. Interviewers recorded whether the participant’s pronunciation was correct or not. This is a widely used test for estimating premorbid intelligence.

The rich information which has been collected over the lifetime of the study allows the determinants of cognitive ability at age 51 to be examined. For example, researchers are able to investigate the impact of a full range of life-time health behaviours such as exercise, diet, smoking and alcohol consumption, all of which are potentially modifiable at the individual level.

Understanding the impact of these behaviours on cognitive function is vital if levels of dementia in the general population are to be reduced in the future.

The questionnaire includes a number of questions asking study members about their relationships with partners (including ex-partners) and experience of domestic violence.

These questions are asked in a module covering various other sensitive topics (including voting, mental health, childlessness, unsuccessful pregnancies, menopause and gynaecological problems).

The paper self-completion questionnaire included a shortened version of the 50 item IPIP representation of the Goldberg (1992) markers for the ‘Big-Five’ personality traits. These are: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

These personality traits are generally considered to be relatively stable and reliable indicators of how individuals differ in response to particular situations.

A significant number of publications have already examined links between personality and other issues ranging from obesity to voter turn-out but many more questions can be researched using these measures.