The data are part of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS), in which the same individuals have been followed over 30 years. At this research stage, data were collected using a life situation questionnaire, an interview, personality tests, self-rating questionnaires, and a medical examination. This dataset contains the medical examinations of 42-year-olds. The medical examinations consisted of separate sections conducted by a nurse and a physician. The medical checkup conducted by the nurse included the recording of variety of measurements such as height and weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and a dementia screening test, which included a category fluency task, a word list learning trial, and a delayed recall test. In the health interview conducted by the physician, the respondents evaluated their health and told about their illnesses, disabilities, and medications. They were also asked how many times they had spent a night in the hospital or seen a physician or a nurse during the past six months. The respondents' physical and psychological symptoms during the past six months were also surveyed, as well as their mental wellbeing and the health of their children, parents, and siblings. The medical examinations were conducted by a specially trained nurse and a general practice specialist, with the exception of the examinations conducted elsewhere than in Kyllö Health Centre in Jyväskylä. In these examinations, a nurse was not available because of the room arrangement. A nurse was present in 150 medical examinations. In the clinical examinations, the illness and disability diagnoses were recorded, as well as the year and certainty of the diagnoses. Various activity-limiting symptoms and aberrations were also charted, as well as the need for further treatment. The laboratory tests yielded information about, for example, complete blood count, lipids, blood sugar, plasma levels of total glycosylated hemoglobin, liver function, thyroid gland function, serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, 12-hour urinary norepinephrine and epinephrine, sensitive C-reactive protein, free testosterone of serum, and genes. Background variable used: the respondent's gender.

2008