1. An introduction to ELSA Paola Zaninotto Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Email: p.zaninotto@ucl.ac.ukp.zaninotto@ucl.ac.uk

2. What is ELSA? Multidisciplinary study People aged 50+ living in England Longitudinal 2-year intervals

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

4. Key Research Areas Health trajectories, disability and healthy life expectancy Two-way relationship between economic position and health Timing of retirement + post retirement labour market activity Nature of social networks, support and participation Predictors of wellbeing

5. Modes of data collection INTERVIEWER VISIT CAPI Self-completion questionnaire Measurements – timed walk NURSE VISIT (wave 2, wave 4)

6. ELSA Wave 1 (2002) Core Interview (11,392) ELSA Wave 1 (2002) Core Interview (11,392) HSE + Nurse 1998-1999-2001 HSE + Nurse 1998-1999-2001 HSE + Nurse 2001-04 HSE + Nurse 2001-04 Wave 2 (2004) Core int (8,780) Nurse visit (7,666) Wave 2 (2004) Core int (8,780) Nurse visit (7,666) Wave 3 (2006) Core int (8,811) Life History (7,848) Wave 3 (2006) Core int (8,811) Life History (7,848) Wave 4 (2008) Core interview and Nurse visit Wave 4 (2008) Core interview and Nurse visit HSE + Nurse 2006 HSE + Nurse 2006 The sample

7. Information collected during the interview

8. Demographics Household demographics: Household composition Changes to household composition Individual demographics: Age, sex, marital status, etc.. Siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren Information about natural parents

9. Physical health General health and longstanding illness CVD and other chronic diseases Hearing and eyesight Falls, hip and knee replacements, pain, balance Disabilities (ADL, IADL, mobility) Incontinence Smoking, drinking and physical activity Dental health, sleep disturbance and menopause

10. Mental health Self reported emotional problems Centre for Epidemiologic Study Depression Scale (CESD)

11. Cognitive Function Memory Self-rated, orientation, word list, prospective mem Executive Function Word finding, letter cancellation Basic abilities Numeracy and literacy

12. Employment All activities done in last month Current job details Health and work disability Retirement

13. Dimensions of economic status Income Earnings Public & private transfers Pensions/annuities Wealth Pensions, housing and financial asset Consumption Food, fuel and housing

14. Other topics included in CAPI Expectations Access to transports Effort Reward Final Questions

15. Timed walk Aged 60 and over 8 feet Included because good predictor of other limitations in functioning developing

16. Content of the Self-Completion

17. Self Completion Social participation Access to services Activities outside the home Television watching Altruism Life satisfaction Quality of Life Relationships Attitude to work Ladder ranking exercise Alcohol consumption Fruit and vegetables consumption

18. Anchoring Vignettes For a given dimension of, e.g. health or functioning: –Individuals first rate themselves –Then are given brief descriptions of hypothetical individuals To quantify whether people evaluate the same situation differently

19. Reasons for including vignettes on ELSA To assess the reliability and comparability of subjective measures across subgroups in areas in which objective measures are not available To extend this to comparisons between ELSA and other studies To extend this to comparisons across time To provide a way of adjusting distributions to take account of different response behaviours across groups

20. Health and Work Vignettes

21. Thank you