Table 2.

 Conventions for describing patients and interviews

	Criterion	Example
Patients
Identified by a consecutive study number and the health board in which they are registered	L = Lothian,	[L01], [L02]
	F = Forth Valley
	T = Tayside
Interviews
Patient interviews identified by the time point at which the interview took place	1 = Baseline	[T03.1] is Tayside patient 3, baseline interview
	2 = 6 months
	3 = 12 months
	4 = 18 months
Informal and professional carers’ interviews indicated with reference to the patient		[F06.3 GP] is the GP nominated by Forth Valley patient 6 at the 12 month time point