DOI: 10.3886/icpsr34596
title: Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions (PREHCO) Project, 2002-2003, 2006-2007
title: Archival Version

description: The Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions (PREHCO) study investigates issues affecting the elderly (individuals over 60 years of age) population in Puerto Rico: health status, housing arrangements, functional status, transfers, labor history, migration, income, childhood characteristics, health insurance, use of health services, marital history, mistreat, sexuality, etc. It is an island-wide, longitudinal sample survey of target individuals and their spouses with two waves of data collection: 2002-2003 and 2006-2007.
description: The Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions (PREHCO) project provides quality data for researchers and policy makers regarding issues affecting the elderly population in Puerto Rico.
description: The Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions (PREHCO) Project was initially designed as a cross sectional survey of the non-institutionalized population of adults over 60 years of age using a multistage probabilistic sample of Puerto Rico (2002-2003). Family units within each household, in which there was at least one elderly adult, were placed in the following categories and later interviewed: family units composed of one unmarried person or a person living alone; family units composed of a couple with both people aged 60 or older; and family units composed of a couple with one person aged 60 or older. In the first phase of the PREHCO project, 4,291 elderly persons 60 years or older and 1,442 spouses were interviewed (1,042 of the latter being 60 years or older). A second wave of the project (2006-2007) converted PREHCO in a longitudinal study. In the second wave, those same participants were asked to do a follow-up survey, in which 3,891 target interviews and 1,260 spouse interviews were completed. The deceased and institutionalized participants were also interviewed using a proxy.
description: The PREHCO study contains numerous variables on dimensions such as health status, housing arrangements, functional status, transfers, labor history, migration, income, childhood characteristics, health insurance, use of health services, marital history. Please reference the codebook and questionnaires for more detailed information.
description: Weighting factors are included in Parts 5 and 6 of the collection.
description: Response Rates: 93 percent (Wave I Data); 90 percent (Wave II Data)
description: The data were collected using a multistage probabilistic sample of Puerto Rico. Following the 2000 United States Census Bureau of Population and Housing of Puerto Rico, block groups or units corresponding to geographic division of municipalities were created. These blocks were then divided or joined into sections of 90 households. Within each section, all households and the baseline data for adults over 60 years of age were collected to determine which households could be interviewed. All households with elderly adults were then selected. A family unit could be any of the following: (a) one unmarried person or a person living alone, (b) a couple with both people age 60 or older, or (c) a couple with one person age 60 or older. A household could have one or more family unit; all units were included in the survey. When the family unit consisted of two elderly adults, one target or individual participating in the survey was selected from this couple. The study incorporated criteria to underscore the population 80 years or older, that is, to favor adults age 80 and over and within this group, men, when selecting the target in a family unit within each household in a random manner with equal probabilities. Then the units of analysis were all elderly adults who lived in the selected households, favoring men age 80 and older as targets and women age 80 and older, when the women were not spouses of men age 80 and older. Spouses of any age were also interviewed by means of a reduced questionnaire. Those spouses being 60 or older were also measured.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Wave I Data
DS2: Wave I Interviewees and Spouses Combined Data
DS3: Wave I Age of Spouses Data
DS4: Wave II Data
DS5: Weighting Factor for Wave I Data
DS6: Weighting Factor for Wave II Data
description: Individuals over 60 years of age and their spouses in Puerto Rico, excluding the resident populations of the island municipalities of Culebra and Vieques. Smallest Geographic Unit: census tract
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); cognitive assessment test; face-to-face interviewAdditional information regarding the PREHCO study can be found on the PREHCO website.