Change log for Questionnaire versions

Detailed information on changes made between versions v1, v2, v2.1 and v2.2, which consist of corrections to incorrect question logic or data types.

Changes between Questionnaire versions v1 and v2

Questionnaire version v1 was the first version of the questionnaire. In version v2 we made substantial changes to the content of the questionnaire.

In version 2 of the questionnaire, several questions were revised in ways that make them substantially different from their earlier forms. As a result, these fields are stored as separate variables to reflect these changes.

Researchers may choose to harmonise responses from both versions into a single variable for analysis or keep them as distinct variables to preserve differences in wording and categorisation. Harmonisation can simplify analysis, but maintaining separate variables preserves the original detail for interpretation or sensitivity considerations.

Versions v1 and v2 can be compared using the human-readable versions linked in the section Questionnaire datain the main Questionnaire data page of this documentation, and are reflected in the data dictionary and coding files.

For information on our versioning approach see How do we use major and minor versioning for the questionnaire?

Changes between Questionnaire versions v2 and v2.1

Questionnaire version v2.1 contains fixes to 4 issues, all related to errors in dynamic questionnaire logic as described in the section Do all participants respond to every question?.

The issues are described below. These are now fixed for all participants who started their questionnaire on or after 21 December 2023. To test changes between v2 and v2.1, extensive internal testing was undertaken to confirm that the bug fixes operated as intended.

1. Questions about work status

Participants can provide multiple responses to the question "Which of the following describes your current situation?" WORK_STATUS_2_M.

Choosing any of the answer options "In paid employment or self-employed" (1), "Looking after home and/or family" (3), "Doing unpaid or voluntary work (6), "On paid leave (e.g. parental leave, long term sick leave, furlough)" (8), will prompt additional questions about their work:

• "How many years have you worked in your current job?" WORK_YRS_1_1

• "In a typical WEEK, how many hours do you spend at work?" WORK_WK_HRS_1_1

• "How many times a WEEK do you travel from home to your main work?" WORK_WK_TRAVEL_1_1

• "What types of transport do you use to get to and from work?"WORK_TRANSPORT_1_M

• "About how many miles is it between your home and your work?" WORK_DISTANCE_1_1

• "Does your work involve walking or standing for most of the time?" WORK_WALK_STAND_1_1

• "Does your work involve heavy manual or physical work?" WORK_MANUAL_LABOUR_1_1

• "Does your work involve shift work?" WORK_SHIFTS_1_1

Due to an error in the dynamic conditions associated with WORK_STATUS_2_M, if a participant selected any of the answer values 1, 3 6 or 8 in combination with a response that includes an incompatible condition (meaning that participants won’t be asked about their work situation), for example, "Retired" (2), or "Full or part-time student" (7), all work-related fields mentioned above were skipped.

This issue is specific to v2, but a further issue specific to v2.1 is described below, in the section What changed in questionnaire version 2.2 (v2.2)?

1. Contraceptive methods

Participants can provide multiple responses to the question "What have you used for contraception?" GYN_CONTRACEPT_METHODS_1_M.

If a participant selects "Combined Pill" (1) and or "Mini Pill" (5), they are supposed to be subsequently shown questions regarding the age at which they first and last took the contraceptive pill:

• "About how old were you when you first went on the contraceptive pill?" GYN_CONTRACEPT_PILL_FIRST_AGE_1_1

• "How old were you when you last used the contraceptive pill?" GYN_CONTRACEPT_PILL_LAST_AGE_1_1

Due to an error in the implementation of the dynamic conditions, if a participant selected any of the answer values 1 or 5 in combination with a response that includes an incompatible condition, subsequent questions on age-related questions were erroneously skipped due to an error in the logic.

This issue is specific to v2.

1. Duplication of follow-up questions on reasons for change in smoking

Participants who reported that their smoking habits had not decreased in the last 10 years (selecting answers "More nowadays" (1) or "About the same" (2) in response to the question "Compared to 10 years ago do you smoke..." SMOKE_CHG_2_1) were being erroneously asked the following independent question pairs:

• "Why did you reduce your smoking?" SMOKE_CHG_REDUCE_REASON_2_M

• "In the time that you have smoked, have you ever stopped for more than 6 months?" SMOKE_CHG_REDUCE_ABST_1_1

resulting in a duplication of data. This bug did not result in data loss, since the relevant participants were correctly presented with the required pair of follow-up questions:

• "In the time that you have smoked, have you ever stopped for more than 6 months?" SMOKE_CHG_ABST_2_1

• "When you stopped smoking for more than 6 months, why did you stop?" SMOKE_CHG_ABST_REASON_1_M

This issue is specific to v2.

1. Questions about vaping

Participants who

• selected a combination of the options "Cigarettes" (0) and "Electronic delivery devices that can be vaped, such as e-cigarettes (e.g. UWELL, Vype, Vuse, Vapouriz, WizMix)" (1) in response to the question "Have you ever REGULARLY used any of these tobacco products?" SMOKE_REG_1_M

• AND answered "No" (0) for the question "In the time that you have smoked, have you ever stopped for more than 6 months?" SMOKE_CHG_ABST_2_1

erroneously skipped some follow-up questions in the smoking section, including the following vaping-related questions:

• "How often, on average, did you use e-cigarettes (vaping) during the past 12 months?" SMOKE_VAPE_AVG_1_1

• "What type of e-liquids/cartridges do you or did you use in your e-cigarettes?" SMOKE_VAPE_TYPE_1_M

This issue is specific to v2.

Changes between Questionnaire versions v2.1 and v2.2

Questionnaire version 2.2 (v2.2) contains 4 bug fixes, 3 related to errors in dynamic questionnaire logic as described in the section Do all participants respond to every question? and 1 related to implementation of the incorrect answer type.

The bugs are described below. These issues are now fixed for all participants who started their questionnaire on or after 7 June 2024. To test changes between v2.1 and v2.2, extensive internal testing was undertaken to confirm that the bug fixes operated as intended.

1. Questions about walking

For the question "Thinking about the last 4 weeks, in a typical WEEK, on how many days did you walk for at least 10 minutes at a time?" (ACTIVITY_WALK_DAYS_1_1 In Questionnaire version v1 and ACTIVITY_WALK_DAYS_2_1 in v2 and v2.1) if participants respond with the answer "Unable to walk" (-2), they should skip the following questions:

• "How many minutes did you usually spend walking on a typical DAY?" ACTIVITY_WALK_MINS_1_1 or ACTIVITY_WALK_MINS_2_1

• "How would you describe your usual walking pace?" ACTIVITY_WALK_PACE_1_1

• "Do you get short of breath walking with people of your own age on level ground?" HEALTH_RESP_SHORT_1_1

• "Do you get a pain in either leg on walking?" HEALTH_PAIN_LEG_1_1

However, this logic was not working as intended, where participants who reported that they were unable to walk were progressing to the questions listed above.

This issue affects v1, v2 and v2.1 of the questionnaire.

1. Regular but inconsistent smoking behaviours

Participants who respond to the question "Do you smoke cigarettes now?" SMOKE_STATUS_2_1 with "Yes, some days" (2), "Yes, but rarely" (3), or "No, not at all" (0), and respond to the question "Did you ever smoke cigarettes on most or all days?" SMOKE_PREV_REG_2_1 with "No" (0) or "Prefer not to answer" (-3) should proceed to the following questions:

• "Compared to 10 years ago do you smoke..." SMOKE_CHG_2_1

• "In the time that you have smoked, have you ever stopped for more than 6 months?" SMOKE_CHG_ABST_2_1

• "When you stopped smoking for more than 6 months, why did you stop?" SMOKE_CHG_ABST_REASON_1_M

However, due to an error in logic, the participants who met the above criteria failed to progress appropriately, resulting in a loss of detailed information on past smoking behaviours.

This issue affects v2 and v2.1.

1. Non-specific responses to questions about work status

Non-specific responses refer to answers such as "Prefer not to answer", "Do not know", or "Other"

In v2.1 a fix was applied to ensure participants were asked the correct set of following questions after selecting options with conflicting logic for the question "Which of the following describes your current situation?" WORK_STATUS_2_M. The fix is described in the section Change log for Questionnaire versions However, the fix prevented participants who selected non-specific responses ("Prefer not to answer" (-3) and "None of the above" (-7)) from progressing correctly.

This issue affects a small number of participants and affects only v2.1.

1. Questions about reasons for changes in alcohol consumption

The following questions should allow participants to select multiple responses. However, the question type is incorrect and only allows participants to select a single response. This results in potential data loss for participants who may have changed their alcohol consumption for several reasons:

• "Which of the following, if any, do you think contributed to you stopping drinking alcohol?" ALCOHOL_CHG_REDUCE_REASON_2_M

• "Which of the following, if any, do you think contributed to you reducing the amount you drank?" ALCOHOL_CHG_ABST_REASON_2_M

This issue is specific to v2 and v2.1.

As part of the fix, we have updated the response type for certain questions from a single select (previously represented as single integers) to an array type (now represented as a list of multiple integers). In the data dictionary, these questions are now marked with a 'yes' under the 'is_multi_select' column, and their field names have been updated to include an 'M' as the last character, replacing the previous '1' to signify 'multi-select.'

All responses to these questions across versions 2, 2.1, and 2.2 are stored under the same columns, which have been renamed to ALCOHOL_CHG_REDUCE_REASON_2_M and ALCOHOL_CHG_ABST_REASON_2_M, as described above. However, it's important to note that responses for versions 2 and 2.1 will contain arrays with a length of 1.