Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), 1995-1997: Cross-Sectional Screener Dataset (ICPSR 4368)

Principal Investigator(s): Sutton-Tyrell, Kim, University of Pittsburgh; Selzer, Faith, University of Pittsburgh; Sowers, MaryFran, University of Michigan; Neer, Robert, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Powell, Lynda, Rush University. Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke's Medical Center, Chicago; Gold, Ellen, University of California-Davis; Greendale, Gail, University of California-Los Angeles; Weiss, Gerson, University of Medicine and Dentistry - New Jersey Medical School; Matthews, Karen, University of Pittsburgh; McKinlay, Sonja, New England Research Institutes

Summary: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), is a multi-site longitudinal, epidemiologic study designed to examine the health of women during their middle years. The study examines the physical, biological, psychological, and social changes during this transitional period. The goal of SWAN's research is to help scientists, health care providers, and women learn how mid-life experiences affect health and quality of life during aging. The data include questions about doctor visi... (more info)

Series: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Series

• This product is distributed as a CD-ROM.

• One or more files in this study are not available for download due to special restrictions; consult the restrictions note to learn more. Additional information can also be found in the Use Agreement.

  Users are advised that the data in this collection are restricted and available only by special arrangement with the staff of the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) at ICPSR. These requirements are part of the arrangements governing the release of data assembled under this project which stipulate that the data must be used solely for social and behavioral science research. The data and other materials are to be used only for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregated information, and not for the investigation of specific individuals or organizations. Users interested in obtaining and using these data must request and complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement form indicating that: (1) she/he understands the need to protect the data, and (2) she/he will use the data for research purposes only. A copy of this form can be obtained by contacting ICPSR User Support (734-647-2200). Users can also download this form from the download page associated with this dataset. Completed forms with original signature(s) should be mailed to: Director, National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, P.O. Box 1248, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248.

Sutton-Tyrell, Kim, Faith Selzer, MaryFran Sowers, Robert Neer, Lynda Powell, Ellen Gold, Gail Greendale, Gerson Weiss, Karen Matthews, and Sonja McKinlay. Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), 1995-1997: Cross-Sectional Screener Dataset. ICPSR04368-v3. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-01-06. doi:10.3886/ICPSR04368.v3

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04368.v3

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health (NR004061)
• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Aging (AG012495, AG012505, AG012539, AG012546, AG012553, AG012554)
• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute of Nursing Research (AG012535)
• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Office of Research on Women's Health (AG012531)

Summary:   The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), is a multi-site longitudinal, epidemiologic study designed to examine the health of women during their middle years. The study examines the physical, biological, psychological, and social changes during this transitional period. The goal of SWAN's research is to help scientists, health care providers, and women learn how mid-life experiences affect health and quality of life during aging. The data include questions about doctor visits, medical conditions, medications, treatments, medical procedures, relationships, smoking, and menopause related information such as age at pre-, peri- and post-menopause, self-attitudes, feelings, and common physical problems associated with menopause. Also included in the data are background characteristics (age, race, occupation, education, marital status, and family size). The study is co-sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health. The research centers are located in the following communities: Ypsilanti and Inkster, MI (University of Michigan); Boston, MA (Massachusetts General Hospital); Chicago, IL (Rush Persbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center); Alameda and Contra Costa County, CA (University of California-Davis, and Kaiser Permanente); Los Angeles, CA (University of California-Los Angeles); Hackensack, NJ (Hackensack University Medical Center); and Pittsburgh, PA (University of Pittsburgh). SWAN participants represent five racial/ethnic groups and a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

Subject Terms:   African Americans, Asian Americans, attitudes, birth control, body height, body weight, demographic characteristics, doctor visits, ethnicity, family size, health attitudes, health behavior, health problems, health services utilization, health status, Hispanic or Latino Americans, illness, informed consent, life satisfaction, medical evaluation, medical procedures, medications, menopause, mental health, older adults, quality of life, religion, smoking, stress, treatment, White Americans, work

Smallest Geographic Unit:   county

Geographic Coverage:   Boston, California, Chicago, Hackensack, Illinois, Inkster, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, United States, Ypsilanti

Time Period:  

• 1995-11-01--1997-08-31

Date of Collection:  

• 1995-11-01--1997-08-31

Unit of Observation:   individual, household, metropolitan area

Universe:   Women age 40 through 55, living in designated geographic areas, with the ability to speak English or other designated languages (Japanese, Cantonese, or Spanish), who had the cognitive ability to provide verbal informed consent, and had membership in a specific site's targeted ethnic group were included within the first SWAN data collection. 202,985 sampling units were screened for participation. 34,985 were identified as eligible. 16,142 completed the survey.

Data Types:   clinical data, survey data

Data Collection Notes:

Using the variable SWANID, this dataset can be linked with the SWAN Baseline Data (ICPSR 28762), Visit 1 Data (ICPSR 29221), Visit 2 Data (ICPSR 29401), and Visit 3 Data (ICPSR 29701).

Sample:   Site-specific sampling frames were used and encompassed a range of types, including lists of households, telephone numbers, and individual names of women.

Mode of Data Collection:   face-to-face interview, telephone interview

Response Rates:   46.6 percent

Extent of Processing:  ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

• Created variable labels and/or value labels.
• Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Original ICPSR Release:  2006-03-06

Version History:

• 2011-01-06 The data now include New Jersey cohort cases that have been introduced into the data collection. These cases were initially withheld from the original data release.
• 2010-06-03 The data are restricted, but the documentation files are available for download.