Age	Continuous
Sex	Male, female
Income	Low: up to £39, £40 - £79; comfortable: £80 - £99; above average: £100+
Social class	Class I, II/III, IV/V
Home tenure	Owner occupier, local authority rented accommodation, private rented, other (for the old elderly sample; owner occupier, rented, other)
Ethnicity	Welsh, Non-Welsh
Marital status	Single, married, widowed, divorced/separated
Social support variables
Frequency see family	Every day, at least weekly, at least monthly, less often, never/no relatives
Relative seen most often	No relatives, child, sibling, other
Who cares when ill	Spouse, relative in/out house, friend/neighbour, other, no one/d/k/missing—was used for 1979 cross-sectional analysis only
Network type	Family dependent, locally integrated, local self-contained, wider community focused, private restricted
Loss variables
Change in marital status	No change, lost spouse, married—1983 and 1987 intervals only
Number of years widowed	Continuous
Health
Housebound	Yes, no
Self-assessed health	Subjective; excellent/good, alright for age, fair/poor
Health-limited activities	Subjective; yes, no
Isolation variables
Household composition	Lives alone, with spouse, with others
Has close relative(s)	Yes, no
Visits relatives	At least weekly, at least 6/year, less often, no relatives/never
Has telephone	Yes, no
Nearest neighbour	Next door attached/det., across road/50 - 100 yards, 100+ yards
Hours spent alone	0 - 3 hours/day, 3 - 9 hours/day, 9+ hours/day
Isolation measure	Continuous—a combination of 7 objective variables reflecting social contact
Loneliness variables
People available to do favours	Subjective; yes, no, never ask favours
Presence of real friends	Subjective; yes, no—respondent were asked to list names
Wish for more friends	Subjective; yes, no
Confidant	Subjective; no one, spouse, other
Self-assessed loneliness	Subjective; never/rarely, sometimes, often/always