Table 1.

Description of study populations

Study	T-07 1970s	1970 BCS70	1958 NCDS	1946 NSHD	T-07 1950s	Whitehall II	CaPS	ELSA	T-07 1930s	Total
Represented population	Clydeside Glasgow, Scotland	UK	UK	UK	Clydeside, Glasgow, Scotland	Civil servants in London	South Wales	England	Clydeside, Glasgow, Scotland	––
Total sample a	1,551	12,594	14,651	3,552	1,432	10,284	2,906	10,924	1,485	59,379
Max sample male	702	6,110	7,411	1,786	645	6,882	2,906	4,968	698	32,108
No of alcohol observations (male)	2,245	11,226	21,297	5,049	2,424	31,342	9,746	11,657	2,327	97,313
Max sample female	849	6,484	7,240	1,766	787	3,402	––	5,959	787	27,274
No of alcohol observations (female)	2,774	13,387	21,909	5,055	2,952	13,765	––	14,559	2,952	77,353
No of alcohol measures	5 vol	3 vol	4 vol	4 vol	5 vol	6 vol	5 vol	3 vol	5 vol	––
	3 freq	3 freq	4 freq			6 freq	5 freq	5 freq
Year(s) of birth	1972–3	1970	1958	1946	1952–3	1930–1953	1918–1939	1908–1952	1932–3	––
Age range	15–37	16–38	23–59	36–64	34–60	35–83	45–83	50–90+	55–77	15–90+
Years of data collection	1987	1986	1981	1982	1987	1985–88	1979–83	1998–01	1987	1979
	1990–92	1996	1991	1989	1990–92	1991–93	1984–88	2002	1990/92	2010
	1995–97	2004	2004	1999	1995–97	1997–99	1989–93	2004	1995/97
	2000–04		2008	2009	2000–04	2003–04	1993–97	2006	2000/04
	2007–08				2007–08	2007–09	2002–04	2008	2007/08
						2012–13		2010

^aNumber of people with at least one measure of alcohol consumption.

Vol, volume; Freq, frequency; BCS70, British Birth Cohort; CaPS, Caerphilly Prospective Study; ELSA, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; NCDS, National Child Development Survey; NSHD, National Survey of Health and Development; T-07, Twenty-07 study.