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The Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) survey series is an ongoing, nationally representative, longitudinal study focusing especially on differences between Black and White Americans in middle and late life. These data constitute the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth waves in a panel survey covering a wide range of sociological, psychological, mental, and physical health items. Wave I of the study began in 1986 with a nation face-to-face survey of 3,617 adults ages 25 and up, with Black Americans and people aged 60 and over over-sampled at twice the rate of the others. Wave II constitutes face-to-face re-interviews in 1989 of those still alive. Survivors have been re-interviewed by telephone, and when necessary face-to-face, in 1994 (Wave III), 2001/02 (Wave IV), 2011 (Wave V), and 2019/21 (Wave VI).

Please note that for Wave VI, the majority of data collection occurred in 2019, with only a small subset (n=39) of participants surveyed in 2021.

ACL was designed and sought to investigate the following: (1) The ways in which a wide range of activities and social relationships that people engage in are broadly "productive," (2) how individuals adapt to acute life events and chronic stresses that threaten the maintenance of health, effective functioning, and productive activity, and (3) sociocultural variations in the nature, meaning, determinants, and consequences of productive activity and relationships. Among the topics covered are interpersonal relationships (spouse/partner, children, parents, friends), sources and levels of satisfaction, social interactions and leisure activities, traumatic life events (physical assault, serious illness, divorce, death of a loved one, financial or legal problems), perceptions of retirement, health behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, overweight, rest), and utilization of health care services (doctor visits, hospitalization, nursing home institutionalization, bed days). Also included are measures of physical health, psychological well-being, and indices referring to cognitive functioning.

Demographic information provided for individuals includes household composition, number of children and grandchildren, employment status, occupation and work history, income, family financial situation, religious beliefs and practices, ethnicity, race, education, sex, and region of residence.

Asthma is one of the nation's most common and costly chronic conditions, affecting over 38 million Americans at some time in their lives. Managing asthma requires a long term, multifaceted approach, including patient education, behavior changes, asthma trigger avoidance, pharmacological therapy, and frequent medical follow-up. This study provides asthma data available at the state and local level to direct and evaluate interventions undertaken by asthma control programs located in the state health departments. Improved tracking for asthma is critical for planning and evaluating efforts to reduce the health burden from the disease.

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a state-based system of health surveys that collects information on health risk behaviors, preventive health practices, and health care access primarily related to chronic disease and injury. For many states, the BRFSS is the only available source of timely, accurate data on health-related behaviors. BRFSS was established in 1984 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); currently data are collected monthly in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and Guam. More than 350,000 adults are interviewed each year, making the BRFSS the largest telephone health survey in the world. States use BRFSS data to identify emerging health problems, establish and track health objectives, and develop and evaluate public health policies and programs. The BRFSS is a cross-sectional telephone survey conducted by state health departments with technical and methodological assistance provided by CDC. States conduct monthly telephone surveillance using a standardized questionnaire to determine the distribution of risk behaviors and health practices among adults. Responses are forwarded to CDC, where the monthly data are aggregated for each state, returned with standard tabulations, and published at the year's end by each state. The BRFSS questionnaire was developed jointly by CDC's Behavioral Surveillance Branch (BSB) and the states. Data derived from the questionnaire provide health departments, public health officials, and policymakers with necessary behavioral information. When combined with mortality and morbidity statistics, these data enable public health officials to establish policies and priorities and to initiate and assess health promotion strategies. Demographic variables include race, age, sex, education level, marital status, employment status, and income level.

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984 with 15 states, BRFSS now collects data in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories. BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year.

This collection includes a combined dataset of the Generations study wave 1 (baseline) survey and the TransPop study transgender survey. The two studies have many overlapping variables, and they examined topics such as respondents' health outcomes and behaviors, experiences with discrimination, identity, and transition-related experiences. Data from these studies were merged to allow for analysis of the combined LGBT populations. This dataset has also been reweighted to be representative of these populations.

The complete Generations study data (baseline, wave 2, and wave 3 survey data) can be found under study number 37166, and the complete TransPop study data (transgender and cisgender survey data) can be found under study number 37938. For detailed information on the Generations and TransPop studies, including related publications, please refer to their respective DSDR/ICPSR study pages.

This survey explored the ways in which social influences, such as stress and racism, affected health, and the impact these influences had on the respondents' outlook on life. Respondents were questioned about their health status and their exercise, smoking, sleeping, and dieting habits, as well as about diagnosed health problems and depression and their effects on daily activities. Respondents were also asked a series of questions regarding their employment status, type of job and whether it was a supervisory position, the racial makeup of their workgroup, their perceptions of their position and job, the likelihood of their finding another job, hassles experienced while at work, and whether they had any trouble balancing family and work. Another series of questions asked respondents whether they had been a victim of a serious physical attack or assault, robbery, or home burglary, if they had ever been unfairly searched, stopped, or questioned by police, why they felt they had been treated this way, and if they felt they had ever been treated unfairly by a teacher, landlord, or neighbor. Opinions were also solicited on the respondents' experience with depression and anxiety. Respondents were asked whether they felt it was possible to reach their goals, how satisfied they were with their present situation, how often they felt depressed and how long this feeling lasted, whether they lost weight or sleep due to this feeling, how this feeling of depression made them view themselves, how often and how long they were worried about things that were not likely to happen, how often they worried about non-serious things, and how they felt physically when they were anxious or depressed. Another set of questions queried respondents on alcohol and drug use. Respondents were asked how often they drank alcohol, the most they had to drink at one time, whether they had experienced any addiction to alcohol or experienced any emotional or psychological problems associated with drinking, whether they had any problem controlling their drinking, whether they had used drugs outside of a doctor's order, what types of drugs they had used, how often and in what type of situations they had used these drugs, and whether they had any addiction to the drugs. Respondents were also asked whether they had a regular doctor, whether they went to a doctor's office or clinic to seek medical attention, the last time they had gone for a checkup, how they were treated by staff at the visit, whether they trusted their doctor, the reasons why they did or did not receive medical attention, and whether they had health insurance. Respondents were also asked for their perceptions of differences between Blacks and whites, attitudes toward affirmative action with regard to employment, and their attitude toward interracial relationships. Another battery of questions queried respondents on any fears or phobias they had, such as a fear of animals, water, or visiting a doctor or dentist. Questions focused on the severity of these fears, how long they had had these fears, and how much these fears interfered in daily activities. A final set of questions gathered demographic information on respondents such as highest level of education completed, political affiliation, religious affiliation, level of religious participation, importance of religion, birth date, whether they owned their own home or rented, how much they spent on food each week, total family income for the year 1994, and the height and weight of respondents.

For this survey, respondents from three counties in the Detroit, Michigan, area were queried about their work, health, marriage and family, finances, political views, religion, and child rearing. With respect to finances, respondent views were elicited on credit card purchases, recording expenditures, and savings and investments. Regarding political views, respondents were questioned about political preferences, presidential values, freedom of speech, nuclear war, and the interest of public officials. Questions also addressed religious beliefs and experiences, including the religiosity of respondents' parents, belief in and relationship with God, the relationship between science and religion, school prayer, divorce, and homosexuality. Additional religious questions -- based on the respondents' religious preference (i.e., Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Other Religion, or No Preference/Agnostic/Atheist Only) -- also were asked, covering topics such as interfaith marriages, religion of friends, and observance of religious holy days. Questions were asked about the views of respondents' religious leaders on issues including drinking, abortion, and test-tube fertilization. Regarding child rearing, views were elicited on issues including religious preference of child(ren) raised, religious training given to child(ren), and frequency of prayer before meals. Background information includes marital status, employment, political orientation, and income.

The Health and Life Study of Koreans (HLSK) was conducted as a part of the study, "Empirical Assessment of Respondent Driven Sampling from Total Survey Error Perspectives" supported by the National Science Foundation. The larger study aimed to examine the operational and inferential properties of respondent driven sampling (RDS). HLSK applied RDS using a web survey, to examine the health of foreign-born Korean-American adults living in Los Angeles County or the State of Michigan. It should be noted that the literature on analysis of RDS data is not fully established, and there is less than clear empirical evidence illustrating the fit of using RDS for population-level inferences. Hence, data users are advised to exercise extreme caution in making population-level inferences.

This study uses existing questions from established surveys such as the American Community Survey (ACS), Kessler survey of psychological distress, and the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The Main Survey covers topics like socio-demographics, physical and mental health, healthcare utilization, religiosity, political engagement, psychosocial traits, and racial/ethnic identity. The Follow-up Survey and Restricted Data focuses on RDS sampling questions and allows users to examine the relationships between recruiters and their recruits. Additionally, the Follow-up Survey and Restricted Data includes variables that contain sensitive information such as multi-racial identity, citizenship status, and physical health characteristics.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded RADAR in 2014 to collect multilevel, longitudinal data and biospecimens from an ethnically and racially diverse cohort of young, sexual and gender minorities (SGM; e.g., men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, gender non-conforming individuals) who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) (current core cohort n=1,113). The primary objective of this study is to apply a multilevel perspective to a syndemic of health issues associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in this population. The multilevel design focuses on individual, dyadic (i.e., sexual and romantic relationships), network (i.e., social, drug, and sexual connections) and biologic factors that may be associated with HIV. The cohort contains both HIV-negative and HIV-positive individuals, which allows for the development of a repository of biospecimens and HIV sequence data from both pre-infection and post-infection visits that will help facilitate future projects evaluating substance use, HIV risk, and pathogenesis.

A multiple cohort, accelerated longitudinal design was utilized by initially enrolling two existing SGM cohorts and then expanded through the use of convenience and snowball sampling methods. Enrollment criteria varied slightly based on the recruitment method, but overall inclusion criteria required participants to be AMAB, between 16 and 29 years of age, report having had sex with a man in the prior year or identify as a SGM, live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and be an English speaker. Study recruitment opened in February 2015. Participants are followed through the developmental period of late adolescence to early adulthood, which is a critical period of initiation and acceleration of sexual behavior and substance use. Study visits occur every six months.