Wellbeing score

A wellbeing score was derived from three variables that made up part of the mental health questionnaire. All participants completing the MHQ were asked: “In general how happy are you?” (data field 20458) and “In general how happy are you with your health?” (data field 20459), with the options to respond “Extremely unhappy”, “Very unhappy”, “Moderately unhappy”, “Moderately happy”, “Very happy”, “Extremely happy”, “Do not know” and “Prefer not to answer”. We recoded these variables to a scale from 1–6 with 1 representing extremely unhappy and 6 representing extremely happy. Participants who preferred not to answer or did not know were set to missing. Participants were also asked: “To what extent do you feel your life to be meaningful?” with the options “Not at all”, “A little”, “A moderate amount”, “Very much”, “An extreme amount”, “Do not know” and “Prefer not to answer”. This variable was scaled from 1 to 5 where 1 represented not at all and 5 an extreme amount. These three variables were summed to provide the overall ‘wellbeing score’. This was available for 141,829 participants with valid genetic data.