Support #2313
open
Wave 14 changes: age_dv and indscg2_xw
50%
Description
Hello data team,
Thank you for your brilliant work on the Understanding Society dataset. It is an incredible resource and a pleasure to work with, thanks to the care your team has put into curating the files and providing user guidance.
My analyses estimate levels of poor mental health using scghq2_dv (GHQ-12 cutoff score 4+) for participants age 16+. I've re-run the same analyses across waves 1-14 in the dataset I downloaded in May 2025, and across waves 1-15 in the dataset I downloaded last week.
The estimates have changed particularly for wave 14, e.g., the number of participants in Northern Ireland remained identical in the two downloads, but the estimated percent of Northern Ireland residents with poor mental health in wave 14 changed from 18.66% to 20.92%.
After troubleshooting, I found:
(a) Some values for age_dv changed, which changed the number of participants identified as age 16+.
(b) Values for indscg2_xw changed, which changed the weighted estimates.
Are you able to clarify the reason for these changes? (Apologies if my confusion is due to my own misunderstanding or mistake.)
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 2 days ago
- Category set to Data documentation
- Status changed from New to In Progress
- % Done changed from 0 to 10
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Hello Nina,
We are still doing some checks on your query and expect to be able to provide you with an answer later this week.
Best wishes
Roberto Cavazos
Understanding Society User Support Team
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team about 15 hours ago
- Status changed from In Progress to Feedback
- % Done changed from 10 to 50
Hello Nina,
In general, new wave releases may include updates to earlier waves, such as the addition or removal of PIDPs, updates to derived variables (*_dv), or revisions to weights. For this reason, users are generally advised to rely on the most recent release, even when working with earlier waves, whenever this is feasible for their analyses.
I can confirm that there were no updates to valid values (>0) for scghq2_dv in wave 14 following the wave 15 release, except for the reclassification of some observations from -8 (inapplicable) to -9 (missing).
At the same time, there were updates to age_dv in wave 14. These updates involved assigning valid values (>0) to some observations that had previously been coded as -9 (missing), as well as a recalculation based on updates to the date of birth held in the sample administration database and the interview date.
Furthermore, the weights for Wave 14 were updated following the release of Wave 15, largely due to changes in population coverage. With the introduction of the general population boost at Wave 14, Understanding Society once again represents the full UK resident population, including recent immigrants, whereas Waves 7–13 excluded households composed entirely of recent immigrants. Furthermore, Wave 14 weights were post-stratified to the 2021 Census for the first time since Wave 6, helping to correct for long-term attrition in the sample.
The weighting team is currently preparing a methodological note that will explain these changes in more detail. This note is expected to be available by the end of February.
I hope this information is helpful.
Best wishes,
Roberto Cavazos
Understanding Society User Support Team