DOI: 10.3886/icpsr20541.v1
title: National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP): Wave 1, [United States], 2005-2006
title: NSHAP Wave 1
title: Version 1

description: The National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) is the first population-based study of health and social factors on a national scale, aiming to understand the well-being of older, community-dwelling Americans by examining the interactions among physical health, illness, medication use, cognitive function, emotional health, sensory function, health behaviors, and social connectedness. It is designed to provide health providers, policy makers, and individuals with useful information and insights into these factors, particularly on social and intimate relationships. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC), along with Principal Investigators at the University of Chicago, conducted more than 3,000 interviews during 2005 and 2006 with a nationally representative sample of adults aged 57 to 85. Face-to-face interviews and biomeasure collection took place in respondents' homes. The following files constitute Wave 1: Core Data, Marital/Cohabiting History Data, Social Networks Data, Medications Data, and Sexual Partners Data.
Included in the Core file (Dataset 1) are demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, education, race, and ethnicity. Other topics covered respondents'  social networks, social and cultural activity, physical and mental health including cognition, well-being, illness, medications and alternative therapies, history of sexual and intimate partnerships and patient-physician communication, in addition to bereavement items.  In addition data was collected from respondents on the following items and modules: social activity items, physical contact module, sexual interest module, get up and go assessment of physical function and a panel of biomeasures including, weight, waist circumference, height, blood pressure, smell, saliva collection, taste, and a self-administered vaginal swab for female respondents. The Core file also contains a count of the total number of drugs taken, and a variable for each observed therapeutic category, indicating whether the respondent reported taking one or more medications in that category. These variables are derived from the information in the medications file, and thus are guaranteed to be consistent with it. The Marital/Cohabiting History file (Dataset 2) contains one record for each marriage or cohabitation identified in Section 3A of the questionnaire. The Social Networks file (Dataset 3) contains one record for each person identified on the network roster. Respondents who refused to participate in the roster or who did not identify anyone are not represented in this file. The Medications file (Dataset 4) contains one record for each item listed in the medications log (including alternative medicines and nutritional products). Respondents who did not report taking any medications or who refused to participate in this module are not represented in this file. Lastly, the Sexual Partners file (Dataset 5) contains one record for each sexual partner identified in Section 3A of the questionnaire.
description: Respondents were randomly assigned to one of 6 interview paths, with the path determining which modules were received during the main interview or in the leave-behind questionnaire.  Please see the included questionnaire for an in-depth description of the individual paths. In cases where a particular question appeared in the interview for some and in the leave-behind for others, they have been combined into a single variable to facilitate analysis. For more information on study design, users should refer to the P.I. Documentation in the ICPSR Codebook, as well as visit the NORC at the University of Chicago Web site.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
					disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
					statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
					these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
					Standardized missing values.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Response Rates:
					The weighted sample response rate was 75.5 percent for in-home interviews, including a brief self-administered questionnaire, in-home collection of a broad panel of biomeasures, as well as a leave-behind questionnaire. The response rate for the leave-behind questionnaire was 84 percent.
description: Datasets:
					
						DS0: Study-Level Files
						DS1: Core Data
						DS2: Marital/Cohabiting History Data
						DS3: Social Networks Data
						DS4: Medications Data
						DS5: Sexual Partners Data
						DS6: P.I. NSHAP Wave 1 Stata Data Files
						DS7: P.I. NSHAP Wave 1 Public Use Stata Data Files
description: National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP)
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)
description: coded on-site observation
description: face-to-face interview
description: mixed mode
description: self-enumerated questionnaire
description: telephone interview
description: Community dwelling individuals ages 57-85 in the United States.
description: A complex, multistage area probability sample was used of community residing adults born between 1920 and 1947, which included an oversampling of African-Americans and Hispanics. The NSHAP sample is built on the foundation of the national household screening carried out by the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in 2004. Through a collaborative agreement, HRS identified households for the NSHAP eligible population. A sample of 4,400 people was selected from the screened households. NSHAP made one selection per household. Ninety-two percent of the persons selected for the NSHAP interview were eligible. Researchers wishing to compute design-based variance estimates may use the variables STRATUM and CLUSTER. These variables were constructed from the original sampling units for the purpose of variance estimation; the former may be treated as (pseudo) strata and the latter as (pseudo) Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). For more information on sampling, users should refer to the P.I. Documentation in the ICPSR Codebook, as well as visit the NORC at the University of Chicago Web site.