Metadata

Repository and

ELSA linked data

Kate Taylor

NatCen

Content

• RAND metadata repository

• ELSA data and documentation available

Metadata

Repository

RAND Metadata Repository

• metadata.rand.org

• Metadata of international longitudinal studies

about ageing

• Metadata is the content of the questionnaire, how

and when the data was collected and how it is

formatted

Surveys on the site

• Health and Retirement Study (HRS)

• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

• Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

• Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS)

• Korean Longitudinal Study on Aging (KLoSA)

• Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR)

• Chinese Health and Retirement Study (CHARLS)

• Irish Longitudinal study on Ageing (TILDA)

• Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI)

• Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS)

• Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE)

Useful functions

• Search for questions in different waves of ELSA

using keywords or topics

• Search for comparable questions in other

studies

• Browse metadata – domains & subdomains

• Explore general statistics (e.g. life expectancy,

unemployment rates) by country and year

• Download harmonized (identically defined)

variables – HRS, ELSA, SHARE, KLoSA

• Add comments to variables with “Wikipedia-like”

system

Searching

Browsing

RH ELSA

data

Obtaining

study data

Country

stats

Future developments

Flowcharts for ELSA (add on next page)

Make it more user friendly

Input from users welcome

How to register

ELSA data &

documentation

ELSA data in archive

Waves 1 – 4

• Core variables and financial derived variables

• Training dataset

Waves 2 & 4 Nurse data

Wave 3 Life History data

Wave 0 (HSE) data for original sample

Index file for linking (including mortality data)

ELSA documentation

Currently archived:

• Complete questionnaires

• Field documents, coding & editing info etc.

• User guides for datasets

Future developments:

• Improved versions of the questionnaires

Future data to be archived

Wave 3 & 4 (non-financial) derived vars May

Updated (W4) index file (incl mortality) June

Wave 5 core data & derived vars December

Other data available (not archived)

• Wave 2 genetics data

• Application procedure on ESDS ELSA website – contact Meena

Kumari for EDNAR application form

• Geography variables (Waves 0-4)

• e.g. Local Authority, urban/rural indicator, population density

• User guide on ESDS ELSA website

• Non-archived mortality variables – i.e. full date & cause of death

• Other non-archived variables – e.g. month of birth

• Request application form from NatCen ELSA data manager for all

of the above (except genetics)

Linked admin data – DWP &

HMRC

• National insurance contributions & benefit

records

• Data is held at NatCen

• Request form from NatCen ELSA data manager

• BUT not currently able to give it out

• Tax records, savings and pensions (permission

asked from wave 3 respondents onwards)

• Do not yet have data

• Contact ELSA data manager if interested

Linked admin data – Health

• NHS Central Register (mortality)

• Age of death archived

• Full date and cause of death can be requested

• Cancer register

• Can be requested

• Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES)

• Expect to receive this soon

• Only people named on the application form can use it

• Contact ELSA data manager if interested

Where to get more info

ELSA users website

• www.ifs.org.uk/elsa

Archived data and associated documentation

• www.esds.ac.uk/longitudinal/

ELSA data managers

• ELSAdata@natcen.ac.uk

To contact me...

• kate.taylor@natcen.ac.uk

The English

Longitudinal Study of

Ageing (ELSA)