Dietary data in Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study

Learn about Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and its dietary measurement

Summary of study
Dietary data collection
Response
Key findings

Summary of study

Understanding Society, also known as The UK Household Longitudinal study (UKHLS), is a panel study of approximately 40,000 households in the UK which began in 2009 [82]. All members of the household aged 16 years and over complete a survey on a yearly basis. Interviews are via an online questionnaire or by a face-to-face or telephone interview. Each wave takes place over a 24-month period [82]. Members of the household who are aged 10-15 years are asked to complete a short self-completion youth questionnaire until they reach 16 years. UKHLS has a complex sample design which has been outlined in detail in a previous report [83]. Briefly, the overall survey consists of: a general population sample, members of the British Household Panel Survey (which ran from 1991/92 to 2008/09 (from Wave 2)), and an immigrant and ethnic minority boost sample from Wave 6 onwards.

The overall aim of UKHLS is to provide longitudinal data to describe the health, work, and education, economic, social and family life of the UK population and provide a platform to understand social and economic change and policy interventions.

Dietary data collection

While there were no FFQs or diet diaries collected, there are a number of diet-related questions (see the table below). From Wave 7, some of these questions were based on the Eating Choice Index which has been shown in NSHD to discriminate unhealthy and healthy eating [50].

In addition to the questions in the below, mothers answered information about their child’s breastfeeding including age when breastfeeding was stopped.

Diet-related questions in UKHLS

Question	Index term	Datafile*	1991-2008	2009-11	2010-12	2011-13	2012-14	2013-15	2014-16	2015-17	2016-18	2017-19	2018-20	2019-21	2020-2021	2020-2021
			BHPS†	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	W10	W11	W4 COVID-19	W7 COVID-19
Data deposit				2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	July 2020	January 2021
Questionnaire source				Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire	Questionnaire / Youth questionnaire	Questionnaire	Questionnaire
Eat meat, chicken, fish every second day (yes/no) ‡	hscane	hhresp	✔
Does the child eat fruit and/or vegetables every day (yes/no) ‡	cdepdo5	hhresp					✔		✔		✔		✔
Frequency of eating out§	lacte	indresp	✔
Frequency of fruit (frozen, dried and fresh) \|	wkfruit	indresp			✔			✔		✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
Frequency of vegetables (tinned, frozen, dried and fresh, not potatoes) \|	wkvege	indresp			✔			✔		✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
On days you eat it, number of portions of fresh fruit and vegetables per day	fruvege	indresp			✔			✔						✔
On days you eat it, number of portions of fruit	fruitamt	indresp								✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
On days you eat it, number of portions of vegetables	vegeamt	indresp								✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
Type of milk used^¶	usdairy	indresp			✔			✔		✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
Type of bread used**	usbread	indresp			✔			✔		✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
Number of days breakfast consumed	breakfst	indresp								✔		✔		✔	✔	✔
Eats food from where born††	food1	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from mother's country of birth††	food2	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from father's country of birth††	food3	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from maternal grandmother's country of birth††	food4	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from maternal grandfather’s country of birth††	food5	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from paternal grandmother's country of birth††	food6	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Eats food from paternal grandfather’s country of birth††	food7	indresp			✔			✔			✔
Frequency of fresh fruit or vegetables‡‡	ypfrut	youth	✔											✔
Number of portions of fresh fruit and vegetables per day^§§	ypfrutppd	youth		✔	✔		✔		✔		✔	✔		✔
Frequency of fast food‡‡	ypffd	youth	✔											✔
Frequency of breakfast‡‡	ypffdwk	youth		✔		✔		✔		✔		✔		✔
Frequency of crisps, sweets or fizzy drinks‡‡	ypjfd	youth	✔	✔		✔		✔		✔		✔		✔

Notes.
Questionnaire links are provided to CLOSER Discovery (interactive version) or original study PDF as applicable.
* hhresp: household level; indresp: individual level; All index terms are searchable at: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation.
† Not all waves of BHPS asked these questions; see questionnaires for details: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/questionnaires.
‡ These questions were designed to assess derivation rather than diet.

Response options.
§ At least once a week/at least once a month/several times a year/once a year or less/never or almost never.
| Never/1-3 days/4-6 days/every day.
¶ Whole/semi-skimmed/skimmed/soya/any other/ don’t use milk.
** White/wholemeal/Granary or wholegrain/both brown and white/don’t eat bread /other type of bread.
†† Every day/3-6 days a week/ 1-2 days a week/a least monthly/at least every 6 months/rarely or never/special occasion.
‡‡ Every day or nearly/about once a week/every now and then/ never or hardly ever.
§§ 5 or more/3-4 portions/1-2 portions/none.

Response

Response to dietary measures in UKHLS: Individual questionnaire

Wave	N*	Response† (n(%))
2	50,688	50,668 (99.9%)
5	40,975	40,952 (99.9%)
7	39,337	39,283 (99.9%)
8‡	8,075	7,878 (97.6%)
9	34,959	34,901 (99.8%)

Notes.
*N= number of full interviews.
† Non-response = missing, don’t know, refusal responses; all figures are unweighted.
‡ Ethnic minority boosts only.

Response to dietary measures in UKHLS: Youth questionnaire

Wave	N*	Response† (n(%))
1	4,899	4,873 (99.5%)
2	5,018	4,955 (98.7%)
3	4,427	4,400 (99.4%)
4	4,045	3,971 (98.2%)
5	3,655	3,528 (96.5%)
6	3,459	3,422 (98.9%)
7	3,629	3,590 (98.9%)
8	3,272	3,221 (98.4%)
9	2,821	2,801 (99.3%)

Notes.
* N= number of full interviews.
† Non-response = missing, don’t know, refusal responses; all figures are unweighted.

Key findings

The dietary data in UKHLS have not been used extensively.

The relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and well-being

A paper using dietary data and mental wellbeing scores provides further evidence that persuading people to consume more fruits and vegetables may not only benefit their physical health in the long-run, but also their mental well-being in the short-run [84].

Consumption of ethnic food

An Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) working paper from 2014 found that the maintenance of an ethnic origin diet was associated with healthier eating patterns [85].

Diets of young people

Out of two papers examining diet in the youth sample, one found that the majority of them did not eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day and being a boy in lower income households and of Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnicity (compared with white ethnicity) were associated with lower odds of meeting dietary recommendations [86]. Higher fruit and vegetable intakes was associated with higher odds of happiness and lower odds of socio-emotional difficulties and consumption of fast food [87].

Learn about the other studies covered by this guide and their dietary measurements:

Get background detail on this guide:

Learn about harmonisation in the context of dietary data:

Discussion & illustration of dietary data harmonisation

Further information:

This page is part of the CLOSER resource: ‘A guide to the dietary data in eight CLOSER studies’.