Table 1.

Sample characteristics of the 1958 and 1970 cohort studies.

		General election year
		1979		1987		1997		2001		2005		2010
		N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
1958 NCDS	Age	23		32		42		46		50		55
	Sample size	11,889		10,899		10,830		9057		9279		8670
	Voter turnout
	Did not vote	3.931	33.1	2465	22.6	2468	22.8	2119	23.4	2456	26.5	2193	25.3
	Voted	7890	66.4	8314	76.3	8298	76.6	6866	75.8	6678	72.0	6161	71.1
	Missing	68	0.6	120	1.1	64	0.6	72	0.8	145	1.6	316	3.6
	Self-rated health
	Good to excellent	10,742	90.4	9258	84.9	8838	81.6	6944	76.7	7518	81.0	6864	79.2
	Fair	1029	8.7	1268	11.6	1567	14.5	1438	15.9	1177	12.7	1196	13.8
	Poor or very poor	106	0.9	191	1.8	382	3.5	668	7.4	530	5.7	517	6.0
	Missing	12	0.1	182	1.7	43	0.4	7	0.1	54	0.6	93	1.1
	Limitations in everyday activities
	No	11,324	95.3	10,118	92.8	9346	86.3	8095	89.4	7804	84.1	6974	80.4
	Limited	246	2.1	676	6.2	1438	13.3	954	10.5	1462	15.8	1684	19.4
	Missing	319	2.7	105	1.0	46	0.4	8	0.1	13	0.1	12	0.1
1970 BCS	Age	–		–		30		34		38		42
	Sample size					10,442		8961		8232		9116
	Voter turnout
	Did not vote					3906	37.4	3274	36.5	1510	18.3	2047	22.5
	Voted					6464	61.9	5614	62.7	4953	60.2	5856	64.2
	Missing					72	0.7	73	0.8	1769	21.5	1213	13.3
	Self-rated health
	Good to excellent					8830	84.6	7049	78.7	7283	88.5	7695	84.4
	Fair					1334	12.8	1321	14.7	678	8.2	969	10.6
	Poor or very poor					231	2.2	564	6.3	241	2.9	415	4.6
	Missing					47	0.5	27	0.3	30	0.4	37	0.4
	Limitations in everyday activities
	No problem					9469	90.7	8303	92.7	7524	91.4	7608	83.5
	Limited					922	8.8	658	7.3	705	8.6	1502	16.5
	Missing					51	0.5	0	0	3	0.0	6	0.1