DOI: 10.3886/icpsr08719
title: National Health Interview Survey: Longitudinal Study of Aging, 70 Years and Over, 1984-1990
title: Archival Version

description: This study, commonly known as the Longitudinal Study of
Aging (LSOA), was conducted by the National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS) in collaboration with the National Institute on
Aging (NIA) and designed to (1) provide mortality rates by
demographic, social, economic, and health characteristics that are not
available from the vital statistics system, (2) measure change in the
functional status and living arrangements of older people, and (3)
provide measures of health care use. It was also designed to describe
the continuum from functionally independent living in the community
through dependence, possible institutionalization, and finally
death. The LSOA is an extension of the National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS) of 1984, following its sample of 16,148
noninstitutionalized elderly people (55 years and over) living in the
United States, with a special focus on those who were 70 years and
over in 1984. This release of the LSOA contains data on those
respondents who had been 70 years and older at the time of their 1984
interviews. The data include 1986, 1988, and 1990 reinterviews,
National Death Index matches from 1984-1989, and 1987 interviews with
contact persons named by decedents, as well as selected variables from
the 1984 NHIS core questionnaire and its two supplements, Health
Insurance and the Supplement on Aging (SOA). Two Medicare files are
also included: Part 2, Medicare Hospital Records, and Part 3, Other
Medicare Use Records (which covers home health care, hospice, and
outpatient use). Links also are provided to allow merging of
additional variables from the NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY, 1984
(ICPSR 8659).
description: The sample for the LSOA was
drawn in stages. First, in 1984, all SOA households with a person aged
80 or over ("oldest old") were selected. Within these households,
all person aged 80 or over and their relatives aged 70-79 were
selected. Second, all other households with a person aged 70-79 were
selected. From these households, all Black persons and their relatives
aged 70-79 were selected. Finally, the remaining households with a
person aged 70-79, whose residents were all either White or other
non-Black persons, were randomly sorted, and one-half of the
households were selected for the sample. If more than one person aged
70-79 resided in a household that was selected, all were included. The
1986 sample was reduced in size, but 1988 and 1990 data collection
expanded to trace all the original respondents 70 years and older.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Person
DS2: Medicare Hospital Records
DS3: Other Medicare Use Records
description: Persons who in 1984 were 70 years and older and living in
the community.
description: The current release of this collection is NCHS's
Version 5 of the LSOA.The codebooks with frequencies, data
collection instrument, and new record layouts for Version 5 of the
LSOA are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.Per
agreement with NCHS, ICPSR distributes the data file(s) and text of
the technical documentation for this collection in their original form
as prepared by NCHS.The age distribution of the sample of 7,527
persons in 1984 was: ages 70-74 (N = 3,131), 75-79 (N = 2,306), 80-84
(N = 1,266), and 85-99 (N = 824).