The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) Kate Cox

Content Brief background to ELSA Life History Interview Data and documentation available for ELSA

Key facts about ELSA A study of people aged 50+ and their partners Multi-disciplinary - health, economic and social circumstances Longitudinal - change over time Comparative - USA (HRS) and Europe (SHARE) Funding - National Institute on Aging, UK Government Departments

Dept of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL National Centre for Social Research Institute for Fiscal Studies and UCL Dept of Economics Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia and Exeter, and Imperial College Research Team

History

ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse

Interview Content at Wave 1 Household and individual demographics Health Social participation Work and pensions Income and assets Housing and consumption Cognitive function (assessments) Expectations Psychosocial health Final questions Timed walk (assessment) Self-completion

ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666)

Interview Content at Wave 2 Household and individual demographics Health Social participation Work and pensions Income and assets Housing and consumption Cognitive function (assessments) Expectations Effort and reward (of voluntary work and caring) Psychosocial health Final questions Timed walk (assessment) Self-completion

Changes at Wave 2 Some new topics - e.g. quality of health care received, alcohol consumption, literacy assessment Moves into institution End of life interview Nurse visit

Nurse Content at Wave 2 Blood pressure Grip strength Blood sample (fasting where possible) Height (standing, sitting) Weight Waist and hip measurement Lung function Balance Leg rise Chair raise Saliva sample (after visit) Self-completion on personal beliefs & wellbeing (one in ten households)

ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Life History Int. Wave Three 2006 Life History Int.

ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Life History Int. Wave Three 2006 Life History Int.

Changes at Wave 3 Added new people aged to sample No new modules, but some new questions - dental health, use of services, consumption of fruit & vegetables New self completions - anchoring vignettes Life history interview

Life History Interview

Life History Interview Follow up interview at Wave 3 We know little about ELSA respondents before their HSE interview (ie before 1998) Age at HSE = 46 to 90+ Asks about childhood and important life events Aim to enhance our understanding of how early life and events throughout life impact upon circumstances of older people Want to predict events at ELSA (or HSE) baseline and beyond NOT model events before this baseline

Topics covered Children & fertility Partners Where lived Work history Health Relationship with parents as a child Other important life events

How we collect the life histories Difficult to remember all events in life Life grid method - shown to improve accuracy of recall Layout of life grid: Calendar style chart with time across top Multiple rows to enter different events (e.g. work, partners) External events (e.g. Start of WWII, Queen coronation)

Basic life grid

Key aspects of life grid Flexible so can recall events in different ways: Refer to other kinds of events in their life Refer to external events Can choose order of topics Can go back and change answers

Life history interview - current progress Currently in field (March - August/Sept) Evaluation project NatCen Question Design and Testing Hub with ELSA team & US Census Bureau Aim - examine respondents and interviewers experiences of using the life grid Computer Audio Recorded Interviewing (CARI) 30 interviewers - 4 respondents each Behaviour coding

ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) ELSA Wave One 2002 Core Interview (12,099) HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse HSE + Nurse Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Core (9,432) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Two 2004 Nurse (7,666) Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Core Interview Wave Three 2006 Life History Int. Wave Three 2006 Life History Int. Wave Four 2008 Core Interview Wave Four 2008 Core Interview Wave Four 2008 Nurse Visit Wave Four 2008 Nurse Visit

Data available

ELSA data in archive Wave 1 datasets Core variables and financial derived variables Training dataset Wave 2 datasets Core variables and financial derived variables Nurse data Ryff data (personal beliefs & wellbeing) Wave 0 (HSE) data Index file for linking (including mortality data)

ELSA documentation in archive Questionnaires Field documents, coding & editing info etc. User guides for datasets

Future datasets to be archived Wave 3 data Life History Interview data Waves 1 & 2 derived variables Household level data for each wave

Other data available (not archived) Geography (Waves 0, 1 & 2) Wave 2 genetics data Other non-archived variables

Administrative data Additional health data Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) Cancer register DWP and HMRC administrative data National insurance contributions Benefit records Tax credit records New at Wave 3: tax records, savings and pensions

Where to get more information ELSA website Data and associated documentation ELSA data manager (Susan Nunn) To contact me...

The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)