Occupational activity

Learn more about the measures of occupation-related physical activity across selected CLOSER studies

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

Occupational activity is the most sparsely measured domain in the studies covered by this guide, with data collected only across NSHD, NCDS, and BCS70 from ages 33-64y. These measures are listed in the table below. Participants indicated a number of work-related activities they regularly engaged in, including sitting, standing, taking stairs, walking, and moving/pushing heavy objects.

NCDS 33y asks about general physical activity at work (“how much physical effort is involved in your job”) while NSHD 36y asks about frequency of specific activities (“Time spent a) sitting b) walking, c) lifting during course of work”), although both use the same response options (none, a little, some, a lot)).

NSHD 43y and NCDS 44y ask similar questions about activities engaged in at work (NSHD: “At work do you regularly do any heavy lifting, carrying, or digging or other strenuous activities?”; NCDS: “Have you done each activity at work in the last year?”) and the included activities can be compared (NSHD: heavy lifting and carrying objects, NCDS: moving/pushing heavy objects).

BCS70 46y, NCDS 50y, and NCDS 55y all ask the same question about the physical activity involved at work (“We would like to know the types and amount of physical activity involved in your work. Which of the following best corresponds to your present activities?”) with the response option of “sitting occupation, standing occupation, physical work, or heavy manual work”.

NCDS 44y, BCS70 46y, and NSHD 60-64y all ask the same question about climbing stairs and ladders at work (“At work, how many times a day do you normally a) Climb up a flight of stairs (10 steps), b) Climb up a ladder?”).

NCDS 44y and NSHD 60-64y ask the same question about activities carried out at work over the past year and how many hours per week is spent on each activity, including different types of sitting and standing work, as well as walking and carrying or manoeuvring heavy objects (“Have you done each activity at work in the last year?”).

Age	Study	Variable name(s)	Question wording	Response scale(s)	Included activities	Timespan of recall
33	NCDS	N504361	"How much physical effort is involved in your job"	None, a little, some, a lot	*	Not specified
36	NSHD	SIT82 WALK82 LIFT82	"Time spent a) sitting b) walking, c) lifting during course of work"	Little, very little, moderate, a lot None, less than half, about half, > half, practically all the time	Walking, sitting, lifting	Not specified
43	NSHD	LIFT89	"At work do you regularly do any heavy lifting, carrying, or digging or other strenuous activities?"	Not at all, < 1 hr a day, 1-2 hr a day, up to half a day, > half the day	Heavy lifting, carrying, digging, strenuous activities	Not specified
44	NCDS	SITLT SITLTHR SITMOD SITMODHR STDLT STDLTHR STDLM STDLMHR STDMOD STDMODHR STDMH STDMHHR WLKHV WLKHVHR MOVOB MOVOBHR WKOTH1HR WKOTH2HR	"Have you done each activity at work in the last year? Sitting - light work / Sitting - moderate work / Standing - light work / Standing - light-moderate work / Standing - moderate work / Standing - moderate-heavy work / Walking at work - carrying nothing heavier than a briefcase / Walking - carrying something heavy / Moving, pushing heavy objects / Other activities"	Yes / No Hours per week	Sitting, standing, walking, moving/pushing heavy objects, other activities	Past year
44	NCDS	WKSTAIR WKLADD	"At work, how many times a day do you normally: a) Climb up a flight of stairs (10 steps), b) Climb up a ladder"	Occurrences per day	Stairs, ladder	Not specified
46	BCS70	B10Q19	"We would like to know the types and amount of physical activity involved in your work. Which of the following best corresponds to your present activities?"		Sitting occupation, standing occupation, physical work, heavy manual work	Not specified
46	BCS70	B10Q20A B10Q20B	"Number of times you climb up a flight of stairs (approx. 10 steps) at work b) Number of times you climb up a ladder at work"	None, 1 to 5 times a day, 6 to 10 times a day, 11 to 15 times a day, 16 to 20 times a day, More than 20 times a day	Stairs, ladder	Not specified
46	BCS70	B10Q21A B10Q21B B10Q21C	"In an average working day do you: a) Kneel for more than one hour in total? b) Squat for more than one hour in total? c) Get up from kneeling or squatting more than 30 times?"	Yes / No	Kneeling, squatting, getting up	Average working day
50	NCDS	N8PHYSWK	"Physical activities involved in your work. Which option best correspond to your present activities?"		Sitting, standing, physical work, heavy manual work	Not specified
55	NCDS	N9PHYSWK	"Physical activities involved in your work. Which option best correspond to your present activities?"		Sitting, standing, physical work, heavy manual work	Not specified
60-64	NSHD	STUFN09 LADUN09	"At work, how many times a day do you normally a) Climb up a flight of stairs (10 steps), b) Climb up a ladder?"	Occurrences per day	Stairs, ladder	Not specified
60-64	NSHD	ASIL09 HSIL09 ASIM09 HSIM09 ASTL09 HSTL09 ASTLM09 HSTLM09 ASTM09 HSTM09 ASTMH09 HSTMH09 AWAN09 HWAN09 AWAH09 HWAH09 AMOW09 HMOW09 AANI09 HANI09	"Have you done each activity at work in the last year? Sitting - light work / Sitting - moderate work / Standing - light work / Standing - light-moderate work / Standing - moderate work / Standing - moderate-heavy work / Walking at work - carrying nothing heavier than a briefcase / Walking - carrying something heavy / Moving, pushing heavy objects / Other activities"	Yes / No [A vars] Hours per week [H vars]	Sitting, standing, walking, moving/pushing heavy objects	Past year

Notes. *Participation in individual activities was not recorded.

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’.