I C P S R

National Institute on Aging

Description & Citation--Study No. 21041

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:21041
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR21041
 
Title:Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins, 1995
 
Principal Investigator(s):Kaare Christensen, University of Southern Denmark. Institute of Public Health
 
  James W. Vaupel, Duke University
 
Funding Agency:United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Aging
 
  University of Southern Denmark
 
Grant Number:Grant # P01AG08761
 
Bibliographic Citation:Christensen, Kaare, and James W. Vaupel. Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins, 1995 [Computer file]. ICPSR21041-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-06-09. doi:10.3886/ICPSR21041
 

Scope of Study

Summary:The focus of the "Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins (LSADT)" has been on elucidating the causes of variation in survival, health, diseases, loss of abilities, and cognitive functions among the elderly and oldest-old. The LSADT was conducted every two years between 1995 and 2005 and consists of six waves. The study comprises interviews of elderly Danish twins aged 75 years and older (later 70 years and older). At each interview wave, the interview assessment has been based on the interview used in the previous waves, which covers health, physical functioning, cognitive functioning, depression symptomatology, social factors, lifestyle characteristics, and quality of life. The self-report interview assessments have been supplemented with objective indicators of physical strength and agility, behavioral speed, and pulmonary peak-flow. Biological material was also collected from the participants for future DNA analysis.
 
Subject Term(s):activities of daily living, aging, assisted living, assistive devices, cognitive devices, cognitive functioning, disease, health status, home care, mental health, older adults, physical fitness, physical limitations
 
Geographic Coverage:Denmark, Global
 
Time Period:1995, February-April
 
Date(s) of Collection:1995, February-April
 
Universe:All twins aged 75 years and older born in Denmark and still residing in Denmark, not including the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
 
Data Type:survey data
 

Methodology

Sample:The LSADT used a cohort sequential design. The sampling for all waves of LSADT is described in M. McGue and K. Christensen. "Social Activity and Healthy Aging: A Study of Aging Danish Twins." Twin Research and Human Genetics 10,2 (2007), 255-266.
 
Weight:No weights have been used
 
Mode of Data Collection:computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)
 
  face-to-face interview
 
Response Rates:

Physical functioning: The self-reported assessment of physical functioning is based on an instrument that was developed and previously validated in Denmark (Avlund et al, 1995). It has been used essentially unchanged throughout all waves of LSADT.

Cognitive functioning: The cognitive battery includes the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE, Folstein et al, 1995) and five brief cognitive tests selected to be sensitive to age-related changes (McGue and Christensen, 2002).

Depression symptomatology: The assessment is based on an adaptation of the depression section of the Cambridge Mental Disorders of the Elderly Examination (CAMDEX, Roth et al, 1986; Johnson et al, 2002).

Social activity: The Social Activity scale was not administered in LSADT until 1997.

 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Restrictions:The data are restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement form and specify the reasons for the request. A copy of the Restricted Data Use Agreement form can be requested by calling 800-999-0960. Researchers can also download this form as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from the download page associated with this dataset. Completed forms should be returned to: National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, 330 Packard, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, or by fax: 734-647-8200.
 
Original ICPSR Release:2009-06-04
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins, 1995