Domestic activities

Learn more about the measures of domestic activity across selected CLOSER studies

See the ‘Domestic activities’ section for background detail on this domain of physical activity.

Domestic activities were measured across ages 16y to 60-64y with data collected in the BCS70, NCDS, and NSHD studies (see the table below). A range of activities were included in the questions across this domain such as housework, shopping, cleaning, and building work. However, gardening and do-it-yourself (DIY) was the activity which appeared most frequently.

While there was limited overlap across studies at similar ages, NSHD 43y and NCDS 44y ask questions regarding domestic activities (NSHD: (1) “Do you regularly do any heavy gardening apart from paid work?” (2) “Do you regularly do any heavy building or DIY apart from paid work?”; NCDS: “How often on average, did you do this last year?”). Both measures identify to gardening or building/DIY activities, and include similar responses categories capturing duration (minutes; hours) and frequency (monthly/weekly).

Although not at a similar age, BCS70 46y and NSHD 60-64y asked a similar question regarding frequency and duration of domestic activities in the past 12 months which included the same activities (“Mowing the lawn, watering the lawn/garden, digging/shovelling/chopping wood, weeding/pruning, DIY (carpentry, home or car maintenance)”) and the same units of duration (hours and minutes). However, NSHD only asked whether the activities were carried out (yes/no), whereas BCS70 gave more detailed options about occasions per month or week.

The joint COVID-19 survey including MCS, BCS70, NCDS, and NSHD asked questions in Waves 1 and 2 about time spent doing “housework (e.g. cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)”. This is directly comparable across the studies and ages (19y, 50y, 62y, and 74y).

Age	Study	Variable name(s)	Question wording	Response scale(s)	Included activities	Timespan of recall
16	BCS70	f18	"Do you help at home (e.g. Housework/ gardening)"	Never, sometimes, most days, everyday	Housework/gardening	Not specified
16	BCS70	GB12_1 GB12_2 GB12_3 GB12_4 GB12_5 GB12_6 GB12_7 GB12_8 GB12_9 GB12_10 GB12_11 GB12_12	"What kind of things do you help with at home"	Never, sometimes, rarely, regularly	Shopping, washing up, cleaning the house, making the beds, cooking, looking after elderly relatives, looking after pets, washing & ironing clothes, gardening, cleaning car, painting/decorating/DIY, looking after younger children	Not specified
19	MCS	CW1_Timeuse1_6_1	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday since the Coronavirus outbreak began?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Since the pandemic began
19	MCS	CW2_Timeuse_6	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday in the last two weeks?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Past 2 weeks
36	NSHD	BRCKN82 BRCKH82 STONN82 STONH82 CONCN82 CONCH82 DEMOLN82 DEMOLH82 SHEDN82 SHEDH82 MOVEN82 MOVEH82 RUBN82 RUBH82 PNTON82 PNTOH82 CARPN82 CARPH82 WIREN82 WIREH82 APPLN82 APPLH82	"Have you done any of the DIY things in the past 4 weeks?"	Occurences per month Hours per month	Bricklaying, building with stone, concreting/laying paving stones/foundations/soakaways, demolishing stone/brick/concrete structures, erecting shed/fence/gate/door, moving heavy objects, rubbing walls down, painting outdoors/repairs to outside of house, painting inside/wallpapering, sawing/planing wood/woodwork, electric wiring, repairing major appliances	Past 4 weeks
36	NSHD	RUFGN82 RUFGH82 DIGN82 DIGH82 CHOPN82 CHOPH82 ERTHN82 ERTHH82 GRSSN82 GRSSH82 TREEN82 TREEH82 MOWN82 MOWH82 PLNTN82 PLNTH82 HOEN82 HOEH82	"Have you done any of these things in the garden in the last 4 weeks?"	Occurences per month Hours per month	Clearing rough ground, Digging earth or compost heap, Tree felling/sawing or chopping wood, Moving earth/landscaping/levelling/rolling, Cutting grass with scythe or shears, Planting or transplanting trees/shrubs/bushes, Mowing grass or hedge cutting, Planting or transplanting flowers/seeds/seedlings outdoors, Hoeing/pruning/raking/weeding	Past 4 weeks
43	NSHD	HWK89 HWKR89 HWKH89 HWKM89 HWKSW89	"Do you regularly do any vigorous household work or cleaning apart from paid work, how often?"	Minutes, hours Less than monthly, < 1x weekly, 1x weekly, > 1x weekly	Housework	Not specified
43	NSHD	GDN89 GDNR89 GDNH89 GDNM89 GDNSW89	"Do you regularly do any heavy gardening apart from paid work?"	Minutes, hours Less than monthly, < 1x weekly, 1x weekly, > 1x weekly	Gardening	Not specified
43	NSHD	DIY89 DIYR89 DIYH89 DIYM89 DIYSW89	"Do you regularly do any heavy building or DIY apart from paid work?"	Minutes, hours Less than monthly, < 1x weekly, 1x weekly, > 1x weekly	Building/ DIY	Not specified
44	NCDS	LAWNMO LAWNMOH LAWNMOM GWATER GWATERH GWATERM DIGCHOP DIGCHOPH DIGCHOPM WEEDING WEEDINGH WEEDINGM DIY DIYH DIYM	"How often on average, did you do this last year?"	Minutes, hours None, <1x monthly, 1x month; 2-3x monthly, 1x week, 2-3x a weekly, 4-5x a weekly, daily	Mowing the lawn; watering the lawn or garden in the summer; digging, shovelling or chopping wood; weeding or pruning ; DIY (e.g. carpentry, home or car maintenance)	Not specified
46	BCS70	B10Q17A B10Q17B B10Q17D B10Q17E	"Activities in and around the home: approximate number of hours per week"	None, less than 1 hour a week, 1 to 3 hours a week, 3 to 6 hours a week, 6 to 10 hours a week, 10 to 15 hours a week, More than 15 hours a week	Preparing food/cooking/washing up, Shopping for food and groceries, Shopping and browsing in shops for other items (e.g., clothes, toys), Cleaning the house, Doing the laundry and ironing	Average week
46	BCS70	B10Q25G B10Q25GH B10Q25GM B10Q25H B10Q25HHO B10Q25HMI B10Q25I B10Q25IH B10Q25IM B10Q25J B10Q25JH B10Q25JM B10Q25K B10Q25KH B10Q25KM	"The following questions ask about how you have spent your leisure time."	None, less than once a month, once a month, 2-3 times a month, once a week, 2-3 times a week, 4-6 times a week, 6 times a week or more Hours Minutes	Mowing the lawn, watering the lawn/garden, digging/shovelling/chopping wood, weeding/pruning, DIY (carpentry/home/car maintenance)	Average week
50	NCDS	N8SCQ1G N8SCQ1H	"How frequently you do each one...a)Work in the garden; b)Do DIY, home maintenance or car repairs..."	Never, 1x year, several times a year, monthly, weekly	Gardening/DIY	Past 12 months
50	BCS70	CW1_Timeuse1_6_1	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday since the Coronavirus outbreak began?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Since the pandemic began
50	BCS70	CW2_Timeuse_6	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday in the last two weeks?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY),	Past 2 weeks
60-64	NSHD	NGRG09 NGRW09 NGRS09 NGRP09 NDIY09 HGRG09 HGRW09 HGRS09 HGRP09 HDIY00 MGRG09 MGRW09 MRGS09 MGRP09 MDIY09	"Did you do any of the following activities in the last 12 months"	Yes / No Hours Minutes	Mowing the lawn - during the grass cutting season, watering the lawn/garden in the summer, digging/shovelling/chopping wood, weeding/pruning, DIY (carpentry, home or car maintenance)	Past 12 months
62	NCDS	CW1_Timeuse1_6_1	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday since the Coronavirus outbreak began?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Since the pandemic began
62	NCDS	CW2_Timeuse_6	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday in the last two weeks?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Past 2 weeks
74	NSHD	CW1_Timeuse1_6_1	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday since the Coronavirus outbreak began?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Since the pandemic began
74	NSHD	CW2_Timeuse_6	"How many hours have you been spending doing each of the following activities on a typical weekday in the last two weeks?"	Hours per day	Housework (e.g., cleaning, laundry, cooking, DIY)	Past 2 weeks

Note. For the named items in the table above, links are provided (where applicable) to their corresponding content on CLOSER Discovery. Where a variable range is provided, full variable lists can be accessed through the ‘Variable Groups’ tab on the linked Discovery page.

Explore the other domains of physical activity & the comparability of measurements across studies:

Learn more about the studies covered by this guide and their measurement of physical activity:

Further information:

This page is part of the CLOSER resource: ‘Physical activity across age and study: a guide to data in six CLOSER studies’.