Medication

Information on the type and number of medications taken regularly has been obtained from reports made at six home visits at age 36, 43, 53, 60-64, 68-70 and 76-77, and from the responses to postal questionnaires at 31, 60-64 and 79 years. Respondents were usually asked if they ‘regularly take any medicines, pills or tablets (or have regular injections)?’ and asked to complete questions on the reason, duration, name and dosage of any medications taken. The information given was converted into BNF-categorised codes and then onto classes of drug.

The 2006-10 data collection was slightly different, in that study members were asked two sets of medication questions. The postal questionnaire (PQ) contained the usual phrasing about regular taking of medications, whereas the home visit (HV) asked for details of medications taken in the past 24 hours. When the overall derived measures were created, the primary method used was to combine both postal and home visit data, with priority given to the home visit, unless missing. The nurse undertaking the visit was presented with the medications by the study member, so the accuracy of reporting could be more assured. However, alternative derivations of PQ or HV alone, or with HV priority, are also available.

The entire NSHD medication data were thoroughly reviewed in 2017 and an ultimate set of derived measures were created, listing drug use at the various timepoints for a number of ‘classes’ of medical condition. Please view the  documentation for the classes of condition covered and the medications relating to these classes.
However, due to the sensitive and possibly disclosive nature of medication data, particularly for rarer diseases, only summary variables are available. Particularly rare classes of drug may have been removed completely.