Search results

In 2011-2014, the MIDUS recruited a national probability sample of 3,577 adults, aged 25 to 74, designed to replenish the original MIDUS 1 (M1) baseline cohort and paralleling the five decadal age groups of the M1 baseline survey (ICPSR 2760).

The MIDUS Refresher (MR1) survey included the same comprehensive assessments as those assembled on the original MIDUS Core sample (obtained via interview and self-administered questionnaire), but with additional questions about the effect of the economic recession of 2008-09.

In 2012-2013, the National MIDUS Refresher sample was augmented with a sample of 508 Milwaukee African American adults, aged 25 to 64. This sample was designed to increase the number of racial minorities included in the MIDUS study. The MIDUS Milwaukee Refresher survey also included the same assessments as those in the Milwaukee Core sample (ICPSR 22840) and employed a personal interview. This dataset includes all known decedents from the National (ICPSR 36532) and Milwaukee (ICPSR 36722) Refresher samples, and is current for NDI records through December, 2023.

In 1958, the Medical Follow-up Agency (MFUA) of the Institute of Medicine began a project to identify twins who had jointly entered military service during World War II. In the end, MFUA identified nearly 16,000 White male twin pairs born 1917-1927 in which both members had served in the military. These twins comprise the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council World War II Twin Registry (NAS-NRC Twin Registry). This collection represents data from service records, a mailed questionnaire assessing zygosity, and repeating health surveys, including information on education, employment history, and earnings.

There are nine datasets associated with this restricted-use collection:

1) The Administrative dataset includes demographic, zygosity, service history, mortality, and questionnaire participation data;

2) The Service and Other Records dataset contains information collected from service records, physical exam data, cognitive test data, and dental records;

3) The Questionnaire 2 dataset consists of data collected in the first mailed questionnaire sent in 1965 about pain, illnesses, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and employment;

4) The Questionnaire 3 dataset includes data from the baseline epidemiological questionnaire sent in 1974 about number and sex of children, religious attendance, education, income, and occupation;

5) Questionnaire 7, mailed in 1985, contains similar topics as in Questionnaire 2, and includes data about health conditions such as diabetes, as well as feelings about work and retirement;

6) Questionnaire 8 was mailed in 1998 was the third epidemiologic questionnaire. This dataset is comprised of overlapping topics with Q2 and Q7, and has additional data about feelings, prescription medications, activity levels, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and parental death status;

7) The NEO Personality Inventory dataset includes responses to the NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory mailed in 2005-2006;

8) The Service and Death Records dataset (VDE access only) contains information about date and place of birth, state at induction, disciplinary measures during service, decorations received during service, indicator for those known to have been POWs, reason for separation from the military, age at death if died over age 90, and cause of death. Some of this information was obtained from the re-read of service records and is thus available only for a subset of 6357 men;

9) Diagnoses dataset (VDE access only) contains data about medical conditions diagnosed between 1935 and 1985 that were abstracted from a variety of medical records over the course of the study. The diagnoses were coded using the International Classification of Disease system (WHO, 2015).

The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) was reintroduced into the field in 2007 after a 7-year break. During that time, the survey was redesigned and expanded to include a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) system, many new data items, and larger sample sizes of current home health patients and hospice discharges. All agencies that participated in the survey were either certified by Medicare and/or Medicaid or were licensed by a state to provide home health and/or hospice services and currently or recently served home health and/or hospice patients. Agencies that provided only homemaker services or housekeeping services, assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), or durable medical equipment and supplies were excluded from the survey. The 2007 NHHCS included a supplemental survey of home health aides employed by home health and/or hospice agencies, called the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS). The 2007 NHHCS data were collected through in-person interviews with agency directors and their designated staffs; no interviews were conducted directly with patients or their families and/or friends. Agency data collected, available in agency administrative records, included information on the year an agency was established, the types of services an agency provided, referral sources, specialty programs, and staffing characteristics. Data collected on home health patients and hospice discharges, available in medical records, included age, sex, race and ethnicity, services received, length of time since admission, diagnoses, medications taken, advance directives, and many other items.

The National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides, was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides employed by agencies that provide home health and/or hospice care. The NHHAS survey instrument included sections on recruitment, training, job history, family life, management and supervision, client relations, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, workplace environment, work-related injuries, and demographics.

This data collection, Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Surgeons' Certificates, United States, 1862-1940, constitutes a portion of the historical data collected by the project "Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death." With the goal of constructing datasets suitable for longitudinal analyses of factors affecting the aging process, the project collects military, medical, and socioeconomic data on a sample of white males mustered into the Union Army during the Civil War. The surgeons' certificates contain information from examining physicians to determine eligibility for pension benefits. Also included are questions regarding the age, occupation, residence, and military experience of the veterans. These data can be linked to "Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: Military, Pension, and Medical Records, 1820-1940" (ICPSR 6837) and "Aging of Veterans of the Union Army: United States Federal Census Records, 1850, 1860, 1900, 1910" (ICPSR 6836) using the variable "recidnum."

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This was a two phase project designed to investigate the decision-making process of the coroner/medical examiner (CME) offices who are charged with investigating suspicious elder deaths and to pilot an intervention that augmented the decision-making process in three CME offices. In phase one, researchers collected case data from CME offices, public data on elder deaths, and interviews with CME investigators. Researchers then developed a brief screening tool, Elder Suspicious Death Field Screen (ESDFS), to be used by CME employees fielding reports of elder deaths. In phase two, the ESDFS was implemented in three counties for a six-month data collection period. An expert panel reviewed a subsample of cases to assess whether CME investigators made appropriate decisions to investigate or not.

The Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement is a national, longitudinal study of retirement that began in 1952 and was likely the first large-scale study of retirement behavior. The study aimed to understand and follow the transition from work to retirement -- a "well-defined" life transition in the 1950s. The study followed a cohort of 64-year-old workers into their retirement years. Over the course of the 6-year study, over 50 percent of the respondents retired. The survey includes a wide range of questions regarding: sociodemographic characteristics, family, daily activities, work (type of work and work satisfaction), economic status (income, homeownership, and household size), pensions, age identity, age stereotypes, retirement plans, health, life satisfaction and adjustment to the retirement transition.

Unique features of the study include: (1) Gender. Both men and women were surveyed. Much of our current understanding of retirement behavior mid-century (and even into the 1970s) is based on men's experiences. The Cornell Study includes female workers, both unmarried and married. (2) Longitudinal Design. Most retirement studies at that point in history were small-scale and cross-sectional. (3) Health Information. In addition to self-reported health information from the respondents, medical directors at the sampled companies were interviewed and asked to conduct a standardized physical examination of the employees in the sample -- the medical records on the respondents have been retained. These data are in hard-copy paper format. Thus, it appears that no meaningful analysis of the data has yet been conducted.

This study consists of data from the first wave of the project, conducted in 1952, along with waves 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the study, conducted in 1954, '55, '57, and '58, respectively. As the follow-up surveys for this longitudinal research, it provides useful information on changes in retirees' attitudes toward retirement and its accompanying life circumstances.

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.

From 2004-2009, an initial follow-up of the original Midlife Development in the United States samples (MIDUS 2) was conducted with expansion of the protocol to include Neuroscience Project data collection and a sample of Black Americans from Milwaukee, WI. The MIDUS Neuroscience Project performed a second follow-up from 2017-2022 of the MIDUS Main and Milwaukee samples (MIDUS 3) on a subsample of those who completed the MIDUS 3 Survey and Biomarker Projects.

The goal was to examine indices of brain aging, function, and structure with a focus on the brain circuitry associated with individual differences in affective style, and to characterize the peripheral consequences of these central profiles for biological systems that may be relevant to health. The primary aims were to: (1) characterize individual differences in emotional reactivity, recovery, and sustaining processes using corrugator and zygomatic electromyography and eyeblink startle magnitude, (2) characterize individual differences in brain morphology and connectivity using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) (3) characterize individual differences in functional activity within the neural circuitry of emotion using task and resting state fMRI, (4) calculate brain age, and (5) test the ability of these indices to predict the comprehensive array of health, wellbeing, cognitive, psychological, social, and life challenge factors assessed in other MIDUS projects. To probe individual differences in emotional processes, psychophysiological and fMRI measures of emotional responses to the presentation of negative, positive, and neutral pictures, and these same measures during a post-picture period were examined.

Emotion-influenced memory was assessed at both the psychophysiological and imaging sessions: (1) Free recall of the presented affective pictures at the end of the psychophysiological session. (2) Memory and likeability ratings for neutral faces paired with the affective pictures in the imaging task. Finally, selected tasks from the CANTAB assessed affective biases and cognitive processes important for emotion regulation.