Health and Retirement Study

David Weir, Charles C. Brown, Kenneth M. Langa

This is competing continuation proposal Years 17-22 of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We propose to continue core data collection on the steady-state design laid out in the previous renewal including the addition of a new cohort in 2010; to build on our sub-study of prevalence of dementia to examine incidence; to add the collection of biological samples, including DNA, and psychosocial content; and to continue the use of mail surveys on special topics, including continued longitudinal measurement of consumption and time use for about half of the sample, as a low-cost complement to the core data collection. This proposal includes the period from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2011.

HRS provides a uniquely rich, nationally representative longitudinal dataset for the community of scientific and policy researchers who study the health, economics and demography of aging. It provides a research data base that can simultaneously support cross-sectional descriptions of the U.S. population over the age of fifty, longitudinal studies of a given cohort over a substantial period of time and research on cross-cohort trends. By 2010 the HRS will be able to support cross-cohort comparisons of trajectories of health, labor supply, or wealth accumulation for persons who entered their 50’s in 1992, 1998 and 2004.

The HRS project creates data system extending beyond the core survey data. One component of this data system consists of linkages of administrative data to the HRS survey data, which include Social Security earnings and benefit records, Medicare utilization and diagnostic records, employer pension records, National Death Index. We plan to expand these linkages to include Medicaid Records and nursing home information from the Minimum Data Set.

A second component is the use of the HRS survey as a sampling frame to support targeted sub-studies. A third aspect of the HRS data system, which is not formally part of the HRS project, is the emergence of a set of longitudinal studies of aging in other countries which have been consciously designed to produce data as comparable as possible to that collected by the HRS.

The HRS provides public use data designed to allow the full power and creativity of America’s scientific community to address the challenges of an aging population. The HRS is making a significant impact on research on aging through investigator-initiated research which uses the HRS as an input without charge to researchers or granting agencies.

Further information: http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/


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