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The Chicago Community Adult Health Study (CCAHS) consists of four interrelated components that were conducted simultaneously: (1) a survey of adult health on a probability sample of 3,105 Chicago adults, including direct physical measurements of their blood pressure and heart rate and of height, weight, waist and hip circumference, and leg length; (2) a biomedical supplement which collected blood and/or saliva samples on a subset of 661 survey respondents; (3) a community survey in which individuals described aspects of the social environment of all survey respondents' neighborhoods; and (4) a systematic social observation (SSO) of the blocks in which potential survey respondents resided, including a lost letter drop (Milgram et al. 1965) as an unobtrusive measure of neighborhood social capital/sense of responsibility to help others. The latter two extend a community survey and SSO of neighborhoods carried out by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) in 1995. The adult health survey and the community survey were conducted jointly through face-to-face interviews with a stratified, multistage probability sample of 3,105 individuals aged 18 and over and living in the city of Chicago, with a response rate of 72 percent that is about the highest currently attainable in large urban areas. In addition, blood pressure, heart rate, and physical measurements (of height, weight, waist and hips, and leg length) were collected during the survey interview, and blood and saliva samples from 661 respondents or 60 percent of those doing the survey in the 80 "focal" neighborhood clusters (NCs). SSOs were conducted on 1,663 of the 1,672 city blocks on which each respondent lived. The CCAHS is the largest of five projects under the NIH-funded Michigan Interdisciplinary Center on Social Inequalities, Mind and Body Mind (#P50HD38986), one of five Mind-Body Centers funded by the National Institutes of Health in late 1999. This study will advance the understanding of socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health, a major priority of the Public Health Service and the National Institutes of Health.

The PI-supplied summary mentions that the study is comprised of four components. However, for the purposes of this data release there are three distinct datasets. Demographic variables include age, birth year, race, ethnicity, number of children in the household, number of children living elsewhere, number of times the respondent has been married, and relationship status, religious preference, and sex.

The Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES, or Costa Rica Estudio de Longevidad y Envejecimiento Saludable) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of health and lifecourse experiences of 2,827 Costa Ricans ages 60 and over in 2005, the baseline collection. CRELES-2 refers to the second wave of visits in this longitudinal study, and includes the results from these visits. The first wave of interviews, or baseline, of CRELES is also available at http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26681. The second wave fieldwork was conducted from October 2006 to July 2008, with 2,364 surviving and contacted participants. The original sample was drawn from Costa Rican residents in the 2000 population census who were born in 1945 or before, with an over-sample of the oldest-old (ages 95 and over). Vital statistics indicate that Costa Rica has an unusually high life expectancy for a middle-income country, even higher than that of the United States, but CRELES is the first nationally representative survey to investigate adult health levels in Costa Rica. CRELES public use data files contain information on a broad range of topics including self-reported physical health, psychological health, living conditions, health behaviors, health care utilization, social support, and socioeconomic status. Objective health indicators include anthropometrics, observed mobility, and biomarkers from fasting blood samples (such as cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin, and C-reactive protein). Mortality events are tracked and conditions surrounding death are measured in a surviving family interview.

The Biomarker study is Project 4 of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) longitudinal study, a national survey of more than 7,000 Americans (aged 25 to 74) begun in 1994. The purpose of the larger study was to investigate the role of behavioral, psychological, and social factors in understanding age-related differences in physical and mental health. With support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a longitudinal follow-up of the original MIDUS samples [core sample (N = 3,487), metropolitan over-samples (N = 757), twins (N = 957 pairs), and siblings (N = 950)] was conducted in 2004-2006. Guiding hypotheses, at the most general level, were that behavioral and psychosocial factors are consequential for health (physical and mental). A description of the study and findings from it are available on the MIDUS website.

The Biomarker Project (Project 4) of MIDUS 2 contains data from 1,255 respondents. These respondents include two distinct subsamples, all of whom completed the Project 1 Survey: (1) longitudinal survey sample (n = 1,054) and (2) Milwaukee sample (n = 201). The Milwaukee group contained individuals who participated in the baseline MIDUS Milwaukee study, initiated in 2005. The purpose of the Biomarker Project (Project 4) was to add comprehensive biological assessments on a subsample of MIDUS respondents, thus facilitating analyses that integrate behavioral and psychosocial factors with biology. The broad aim is to identify biopsychosocial pathways that contribute to diverse health outcomes. A further theme is to investigate protective roles that behavioral and psychosocial factors have in delaying morbidity and mortality, or in fostering resilience and recovery from health challenges once they occur. The research was not disease-specific, given that psychosocial factors have relevance across multiple health endpoints.

Biomarker data collection was carried out at three General Clinical Research Centers (at UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and Georgetown University). The biomarkers reflect functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, antioxidants, and metabolic processes. Our specimens (fasting blood draw, 12-hour urine, saliva) allow for assessment of multiple indicators within these major systems. The protocol also included assessments by clinicians or trained staff, including vital signs, morphology, functional capacities, bone densitometry, medication usage, and a physical exam. Project staff obtained indicators of heart-rate variability, beat to beat blood pressure, respiration, and salivary cortisol assessments during an experimental protocol that included both a cognitive and orthostatic challenge. Finally, to augment the self-reported data collected in Project 1, participants completed a medical history, self-administered questionnaire, and self-reported sleep assessments. For respondents at one site (UW-Madison), objective sleep assessments were also obtained with an Actiwatch(R) activity monitor.

The Biomarker Project is one of multiple projects that comprise the MIDUS 3 (M3) "Integrative Pathways to Health and Illness" study. For the past two decades, the overarching objective of MIDUS has been to investigate linkages between sociodemographic, psychosocial, behavioral, and neurobiological variables to account for unfolding profiles of morbidity and mortality across the decades of adult life as well as the maintenance of good health and functional capacities. The study has facilitated analyses that pay attention simultaneously to age, gender, race, and socioeconomic variation in how psychosocial and neurobiological variables are linked. In addition, the M3 data permit longitudinal assessment of the impact of ongoing historical events, such as the 2008 economic recession, on the health of diverse-aged adults, which was also included in the MIDUS Refresher 1 (MR1) assessments. M3 included recruitment of additional twins to facilitate genomic analysis.

The M3 Biomarker Project (P4) includes assessment of multiple indicators of physiological regulation/dysregulation and health according to the basic protocol implemented in the MR1 study, which repeated and expanded the M2 biomarker protocol. The M3 protocol included bone density and body composition assessments at all sites and expansion of Actigraphy, Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) and Gait assessments to all three sites. Data were collected during a 24-hour stay at one of three Clinical Research Units (CRU).

The MIDUS Refresher study Survey (2011-2014 ICPSR 36532) recruited a national probability sample of 3,577 adults, aged 25 to 74, designed to replenish the original MIDUS 1 baseline cohort and paralleling the five decadal age groups of the MIDUS 1 baseline survey (ICPSR 2760). The MIDUS Refresher survey employed the same comprehensive assessments as those assembled on the core longitudinal MIDUS sample, but with additional questions about impacts of the economic recession of 2008-09. The MIDUS Refresher Biomarker study (2012-2016) obtained data from 863 respondents (n=746 Main sample, n=117 African Americans from Milwaukee) who completed the MIDUS Refresher Survey.

The purpose of the Refresher Biomarker Project (Project 4) parallels that of the MIDUS 2 Biomarker project (ICPSR 29282), which collected comprehensive biological assessments on a subsample of MIDUS respondents, thus facilitating analyses that integrate behavioral and psychosocial factors with biological regulation/dysregulation, broadly defined. The aim was to use such data to explicate biopsychosocial pathways that contributed to diverse health outcomes. A further theme was to examine period effects on health (mental and physical) related to the economic recession by comparing the pre-recession MIDUS sample with the post-recession MIDUS Refresher sample. A further objective of the MIDUS Refresher sample was to strengthen cross-project analyses by increasing the sample sizes available for testing hypotheses regarding the interplay of key factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, gender, psychosocial factors, biological factors) in mid- and later-life health.

Biomarker data collection was carried out at hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, antioxidants, and three General Clinical Research Centers (at UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and Georgetown University). The biomarkers reflect functioning of the metabolic processes. Our specimens (fasting blood draw, 12-hour urine, saliva) allowed for assessment of multiple indicators within these major systems. The protocol also included assessments by clinicians or trained staff, including vital signs, morphology, functional capacities including 3 dimensional gait analysis, bone densitometry, body composition, ankle brachial index, medication usage, and a physical exam. Project staff obtained indicators of heart-rate variability, beat to beat blood pressure, respiration, and salivary cortisol assessments during an experimental protocol that included both a cognitive and orthostatic challenge. Finally, to augment the self-reported data collected in Survey (Project 1), participants completed a medical history, self-administered questionnaire, and self-reported sleep assessments. For respondents at one site (UW-Madison), objective sleep assessments were also obtained with an Actiwatch(R) activity monitor.

Downloads of Add Health require submission of the following information, which is shared with the original producer of Add Health: supervisor name, supervisor email, and reason for download. A Data Guide for this study is available as a web page and for download.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), 1994-2018 [Public Use] is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents in grades 7 through 12 during the 1994-1995 school year. The Add Health cohort was followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most recent conducted in 2008 when the sample was aged 24-32. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents' social, economic, psychological, and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships.

Add Health Wave I data collection took place between September 1994 and December 1995, and included both an in-school questionnaire and in-home interview. The in-school questionnaire was administered to more than 90,000 students in grades 7 through 12, and gathered information on social and demographic characteristics of adolescent respondents, education and occupation of parents, household structure, expectations for the future, self-esteem, health status, risk behaviors, friendships, and school-year extracurricular activities. All students listed on a sample school's roster were eligible for selection into the core in-home interview sample. In-home interviews included topics such as health status, health-facility utilization, nutrition, peer networks, decision-making processes, family composition and dynamics, educational aspirations and expectations, employment experience, romantic and sexual partnerships, substance use, and criminal activities. A parent, preferably the resident mother, of each adolescent respondent interviewed in Wave I was also asked to complete an interviewer-assisted questionnaire covering topics such as inheritable health conditions, marriages and marriage-like relationships, neighborhood characteristics, involvement in volunteer, civic, and school activities, health-affecting behaviors, education and employment, household income and economic assistance, parent-adolescent communication and interaction, parent's familiarity with the adolescent's friends and friends' parents.

Add Health data collection recommenced for Wave II from April to August 1996, and included almost 15,000 follow-up in-home interviews with adolescents from Wave I. Interview questions were generally similar to Wave I, but also included questions about sun exposure and more detailed nutrition questions. Respondents were asked to report their height and weight during the course of the interview, and were also weighed and measured by the interviewer.

From August 2001 to April 2002, Wave III data were collected through in-home interviews with 15,170 Wave I respondents (now 18 to 26 years old), as well as interviews with their partners. Respondents were administered survey questions designed to obtain information about family, relationships, sexual experiences, childbearing, and educational histories, labor force involvement, civic participation, religion and spirituality, mental health, health insurance, illness, delinquency and violence, gambling, substance abuse, and involvement with the criminal justice system. High School Transcript Release Forms were also collected at Wave III, and these data comprise the Education Data component of the Add Health study.

Wave IV in-home interviews were conducted in 2008 and 2009 when the original Wave I respondents were 24 to 32 years old. Longitudinal survey data were collected on the social, economic, psychological, and health circumstances of respondents, as well as longitudinal geographic data. Survey questions were expanded on educational transitions, economic status and financial resources and strains, sleep patterns and sleep quality, eating habits and nutrition, illnesses and medications, physical activities, emotional content and quality of current or most recent romantic/cohabiting/marriage relationships, and maltreatment during childhood by caregivers. Dates and circumstances of key life events occurring in young adulthood were also recorded, including a complete marriage and cohabitation history, full pregnancy and fertility histories from both men and women, an educational history of dates of degrees and school attendance, contact with the criminal justice system, military service, and various employment events, including the date of first and current jobs, with respective information on occupation, industry, wages, hours, and benefits. Finally, physical measurements and biospecimens were also collected at Wave IV, and included anthropometric measures of weight, height and waist circumference, cardiovascular measures such as systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pulse, metabolic measures from dried blood spots assayed for lipids, glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), measures of inflammation and immune function, including High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Wave V data collection took place from 2016 to 2018, when the original Wave I respondents were 33 to 43 years old. For the first time, a mixed mode survey design was used. In addition, several experiments were embedded in early phases of the data collection to test response to various treatments. A similar range of data was collected on social, environmental, economic, behavioral, and health circumstances of respondents, with the addition of retrospective child health and socio-economic status questions. Physical measurements and biospecimens were again collected at Wave V, and included most of the same measures as at Wave IV.

The overall goal of Wave VI was to better understand life course trajectories, determinants, and consequences of critical dimensions of aging, health, and health disparities among U.S. early midlife adults. Data collection took place from 2022 to 2025, with participants between the ages of 39 and 51, with an average age of 44. Beyond longitudinal survey measures, newly added questions included those on cumulative stress, discrimination, despair, work-life balance, memory, physical limitations, and caregiving. Continuing from previous waves, home exams collected physical measurements and biospecimens with most of the same measures as Wave V.

The Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS) in Taiwan, 2000 and 2006, provides information regarding the health and well-being of older persons in Taiwan. Taiwan has undergone rapid demographic, social, and economic changes, becoming a highly urbanized and industrial society with a growing population of persons age 65 or older. SEBAS explores the relationship between life challenges and mental and physical health, the impact of social environment on the health and well-being of the elderly, as well as biological markers of health and stress. The study collected self-reports of physical, psychological, and social well-being, plus extensive clinical data based on medical examinations and laboratory analyses. Examination of health outcomes included chronic illnesses, functional status, psychological well-being, and cognitive function. Questions regarding life challenges focused on perceived stress, economic difficulties, security and safety, and the consequences of a major earthquake. Biological markers were used to identify cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic process measures, immune-system activity, the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis, and sympathetic nervous system activity. Two rounds of biomarker data collected in 2000 and 2006 were complemented by face-to-face interviews with the participants. Demographic and background variables included age, sex, education, ethnicity, occupation, and residency.

Additional information about the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study can be found at the Georgetown University Center for Populations and Health Web site.

A Webinar describing the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS) was presented June 20, 2016. All interested users can access the webinar here.

In 2008, with funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), baseline survey data were collected from a probability sample of Japanese adults (N=1,027) aged 30 to 79 from the Tokyo metropolitan area, resulting in the Survey of Midlife in Japan (MIDJA) [ICPSR 30822]. In 2009-2010, biomarker data was obtained from a subset (n=382) of these cases (MIDJA Biomarker) [ICPSR 34969].

The survey and biomarker measures obtained, parallel those in a national longitudinal sample of Americans known as Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) [ICPSR 4652: MIDUS 2 and ICPSR 2760: MIDUS 1]. The central objective was to compare the Japanese sample (MIDJA) with the United States sample (MIDUS) to test hypotheses about the role of psychosocial factors in the health (broadly defined) of mid- and later-life adults in Japan and the United States

In 2012, with additional support from NIA, a longitudinal follow-up of the MIDJA sample was conducted resulting in a second wave (N=657) of survey data (MIDJA 2) [ICPSR 36427].

This collection reflects data from 2013-2014, when a second wave of biomarker data was obtained from a sub-sample (n=328) of those who completed the MIDJA 2 survey. Among this group, about 75 percent (n=243) also completed the first wave of biomarker assessments.

Participants traveled to a clinic on the University of Tokyo campus where biomarker data (vital signs, morphometric assessments, blood assays, and medication data) were obtained. Participants also provided daily saliva samples for cortisol assessment and completed a self-administered medical history questionnaire, as well as a time preference questionnaire.

The medical history questionnaire included assessments of conditions and symptoms, major health and life events, nutrition/diet, and additional psychosocial measures (anxiety, depression, relationship quality, control, etc.).

The time preference questionnaire was used to collect respondents' opinions on management of money and assets given hypothetical scenarios.

Demographic variables include age, gender, and marital status.

The World Health Organization (WHO)'s Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) is a longitudinal follow-up of a cohort of ageing and older adults. SAGE has been built on the experience and standardized instruments of WHO's 2000/2001 Multi-country Survey Study (MCSS) and the 2002/2004 World Health Surveys (WHS).

These surveys focused on health and health-related outcomes and their determinants and impacts in nationally representative samples. These data will address data gaps on ageing, adult health and well-being in lower and middle income countries, whilst being comparable to surveys conducted in higher income countries (such as the United States' Health and Retirement Study (HRS), English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)). One of the major drivers of this effort has been the lack of comparability of self-reported health status in international health surveys due to systematic biases in reporting, despite using similar instruments and attempts at making questions conceptually equivalent in translation. SAGE uses standard instruments developed over the last decade, a common design and training approach with explicit strategies for making data comparable to cover a wide range of issues that directly and indirectly impact health and well-being.

The survey methodology and research design has included a number of methods to address methods for detecting and correcting for systematic reporting biases in health interview surveys, including vignette methodologies, objective performance tests and biomarkers. A number of techniques have also been employed to improve data comparability, including using common definitions of concepts, common methods of data collection and translations, rigorous sample design and post hoc harmonization. The 2007-2010 SAGE Wave 1 data from six countries (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa) is the follow-up survey project to the 2002-2004 WHO data, which constitutes Wave 0 of WHO's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). A sample of these respondents from SAGE Wave 0 are included in this follow-up 2007-2010 SAGE Wave 1 in the six countries, with new respondents added to ensure a nationally representative sample.