Health and Retirement Study

Collected By: NIA/NIH

Sample Coverage and Dataset Characteristics: National survey of more than 22,000 Americans over the age of 50 every two years.

Key Variables: The 2004 survey included demographics, household information; physical health, cognition, family structure, functional limitations and helpers, housing, employment, disability, health services and insurance, assets and income, asset change, widowhood and divorce, wills and life insurance.

Documentation: http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/

Indicative Studies/Presentations:

• Growing Older in America: The Health and Retirement Study http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/news/sho_news.php?hfyle=news234&xtyp=1
• Ostbye, T., Taylor, D. H., Yancy, Jr, W. S., William, Jr, S., & Krause, K. M. (2005).  Associations Between Obesity and Receipt of Screening Mammography, Papanicolaou Tests, and Influenza Vaccination: Results from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study. Am J Public Health, 95, 1623-1630