What do the general population regard as “successful ageing”?”

This experiment uses three vignettes which present different scenarios about the circumstances of a 75-year-old, across six life dimensions. Gender of the person described in the vignette is also varied. The six life dimension are: Chronic disease; Disability; Physical functioning; Cognitive functioning; Interpersonal engagement; and Productive engagement. Each dimension has a favourable and unfavourable outcome which were independently chosen, and allocated randomly at the respondent level.

Random allocation to treatment occurred at the individual level within the questionnaire itself.  The controlling variables were computed via system randomisation at the start of the individual interview. Each vignette required a unique set of six controlling variables, one for each life dimension, while the names were allocated such that only one control variable was needed.  The controlling variables, to be assigned in the questionnaire and in the record i_indresp:

ff_vigname: sequence of names used in the three vignettes

1          George, Margaret, Harry

2          George, Margaret, Anne

3          George, Harry, Margaret

4          Margaret, George, Harry

5          Margaret, George, Anne

6          Margaret, Anne, George

ff_vdisease1 (for vignette1), ff_vdisease2 (for vignette2),  ff_vdisease3 (for vignette3)

1          No long-term illness

2          Diabetes

ff_vdisability1 (vignette1), ff_vdisability2 (vignette2),  ff_vdisability3 (vignette3),

1          No difficulties climbing stairs

2          Difficulties climbing stairs

ff_vcognit1 (vignette1), ff_vcognit2 (vignette2), ff_vcognit3 (vignette3),

1          No problems remembering

2          Problems remembering

ff_vphys1 (vignette1), ff_vphys2 (vignette2), ff_vphys3 (vignette3)

1          Opens food packaging easily

2          Struggles to open food packaging

ff_vinterp1 (vignette1), ff_vinterp2 (vignette2), ff_vinterp3 (vignette3),

1          Sees [his/her] family and friends regularly

2          Rarely sees [his/her] family and

ff_vvolun1 (vignette1), ff_vvolun2 (vignette2), ff_vvolun3 (vignette3)

1          Often volunteers

2          Doesn’t volunteer

The variables used for this experiment are in record i_indresp:

vign1, vign2, vign3