English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

Summary

• A longitudinal study able to investigate trends and intra-household variables. • Long-run data available for retrospective information on earlier life. • ELSA is modelled on a similar study in the US (the Health and Retirement Study)

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same

Data gathering method
Face-to-face

Access to data

Conditions of access
Data are available from the UK Data Service (previously the Economic and Social Data Service, ESDS): http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ The website contains detailed information on conditions of access, and it is also possible to contact the UK Data Service by phone: +44 (0)1206 872143, or by email: help@ukdataservice.ac.uk At present the ELSA team are not depositing any variables that allow analysis by or on spatial units. However, in certain circumstances these data can be provided to researchers who want to use it. Details of how to obtain access to these data are given in the User Guide for Geographical Variables, in the documentation.

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata

Formats available
Survey data from the UK Data Service are usually available to download in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited (suitable for use in MS Excel) formats.

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
The ELSA sample was selected from the Health Survey for England (HSE) 1998, 1999 and 2001 respondents. Households were included in ELSA if they contained at least one adult of 50 years or older in the household who had agreed to be re-contacted at some time in the future when participating in the HSE. To ensure that ELSA remained representative of the target population, 'refreshment' samples were included at Waves 3, 4 and 6. These samples were again selected from HSE and included: • a sample of respondents to HSE 2001-04 from households with at least one adult aged 50-52 years (added at ELSA Wave 3); • a sample of respondents to HSE 2006 from households with at least one adult aged 50-74 years (added at ELSA Wave 4); and • a sample of respondents to HSE 2009-11 from households with at least one adult aged 50-55 years (added at ELSA Wave 6). Survey dates: Wave 1: March 2002 - March 2003; Wave 2: June 2004 - July 2005; Wave 3: May 2006 - August 2007; Wave 4: May 2008 - July 2009; Wave 5: June 2010 - July 2012. Core data: Wave 1: 12,100 cases. Wave 2: 9,433 cases. Wave 3: 9,771 cases (Phase 2 deposit). Wave 4: 11,050 cases (Phase 2 deposit). Wave 5: 10,274 cases.

First year of collection
1998-2001

Stratification if applicable
The data includes a variety of demographic variables, including age and sex. The sample is stratified.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
England

Age range
Adults aged 50+

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The ELSA study is a longitudinal survey of ageing and quality of life among older people that explores the dynamic relationships between health and functioning, social networks and participation, and economic position as people plan for, move into and progress beyond retirement. The main objectives of ELSA are to: • construct six waves of accessible and well-documented panel data; • provide these data in a convenient and timely fashion to the scientific and policy research community; • describe health trajectories, disability and healthy life expectancy in a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and over; • examine the relationship between economic position and health; • investigate the determinants of economic position in older age; • describe the timing of retirement and post-retirement labour market activity; and • understand the relationships between social support, household structure and the transfer of assets.

Linkage

Standardisation
There is an ongoing cross-governmental programme of work in the UK which aims to develop and improve standardised inputs and outputs for use in official statistics. This is known as harmonisation, and is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While this work primarily affects government-run surveys, the results have an impact on most national UK data sources. Furthermore, harmonisation has important benefits for all researchers using these surveys, and not just government statisticians. For more information, see: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/harmonisation/harmonisation-index-page/index.html Additionally, this survey uses a number of harmonised health measures: • Rose Angina Questionnaire • Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire • MRC (Medical Research Council Respiratory Questionnaire) • CES-D Depression Scale (8-item) • General Health Questionnaire (12-item) • CASP-19 (Control Autonomy Pleasure Self-realization – 19 questions) is a quality-of-life measure comprising four domains ('control', 'autonomy', 'pleasure' and 'self-realization') • Ryff Scale of Psychological Wellbeing

Possibility of linkage among databases
Data are anonymised

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
In addition to unit non-response, the data include item non-response and may be subject to other errors that are typical of surveys and censuses. There are also incomplete data for some individuals in some waves. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Breaks
There are no major breaks for this data source.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
In general, the consistency of this data source is very good. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Governance

Contact information
Nina Rogers/Dept. of Epidemiology & Public Health
University College London
1-19 Torrington Place
WC1E 6BT London United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)20 7679 1656
Email: n.rogers(at)public-health.ucl.ac.uk
Url: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ See also: http://www.ifs.org.uk/ELSA

Timeliness, transparency
Data are available about 6 months after end of fieldwork.