We originally launched this survey in January 2020 but only managed to interview a small number of you before the pandemic struck. We have now restarted the survey. It’s likely to take us until early 2023 to get round to interviewing you all, so it may be some months before you receive your invitation to take part.
We are pleased to be able to visit you in person again. If you would prefer to take part in the interview remotely by video call, please let you interviewer know this preference when they contact you.
Some of our interviewers will only be conducting interviews by video call. If you are asked to take part in this way but would prefer an in-person visit, please just let the interviewer know this when they contact you.
There may be some delay between your interview and health visit, but before visiting you the healthcare professional will contact you to check if you are still happy for them to visit and will arrange a date and time which is convenient for you.
The Life in Your Early 60s Survey will involve a 90-minute interview and two paper questionnaires. In your interview, we will ask you about, among other things, your partner, your children and other people you live with as family circumstances can have a huge impact on our lives. We will also ask about your employment and preparations for retirement. As part of the interview, you will be asked to complete a series of assessments that look at your memory, concentration, and other aspects of cognitive ability.
If there are any questions you are not comfortable answering, you can skip these – just tell the interviewer that you would prefer not to answer.
Before your interview, we will ask you to complete a paper questionnaire, which will ask about a variety of areas, including leisure activities, attitudes, health, and expectations of the future.
We will also ask you to complete a paper questionnaire about how well you remember your childhood. This includes questions about your parents’ jobs, your family’s financial situation, your feelings and relationships then, as well as other areas.
After your interview, if you agree to a health visit, a healthcare professional will take measures of your weight, waist and hip circumference, blood pressure, balance and your walking pace. We will also ask your permission to take a small blood sample to test for levels of cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin, triglycerides and C-reactive protein (CRP). If you agree to this, we will also ask whether you would like the results of the cholesterol and glycated haemoglobin tests, whether we can extract DNA, and whether we can store your blood sample for future analysis. We hope that with this small blood sample scientists will be able to explore the link between genetics, common diseases, and life history.
At the end of the health visit, we will also ask you to complete a very short online questionnaire about what you ate on two specific days following the health visit.
Find out more about the Life in Your Early 60s Survey in our FAQs.
We hope taking part in our survey will be a positive experience. We know lots of people enjoy taking time out to think about and answer questions about their lives. But if it leaves you worrying about anything that’s happening in your life, there are organisations you can talk to. Visit our helplines page for more information.
Life in Your Early 60s – Survey Guide
Life in Your Early 60s – Health Visit Guide
