Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly, Waves I-IV, 1993-2001

Investigators: Preventive Medicine and Community Health

The Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (Hispanic EPESE) project collected data on a representative sample of community-dwelling Mexican-Americans, aged 65 years and older, residing in the five southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The primary purpose of the study was to provide estimates of the prevalence of key physical health conditions, mental health conditions, and functional impairments in older Mexican Americans and compare them to those in other populations. In addition, the investigators wanted to study predictors and correlates of the health outcomes cross-sectionally. Baseline interviews were conducted in 1993 and 1994 with 3,050 subjects. Follow-up interviews of the same subjects were conducted at two (1995-1996), five (1998-1999), seven (2000-2001) and ten (2004-2005) years. Prior to the start of the ten-year follow-up, another 1,000 subjects aged 75 or older were added to the sample. Data were collected on major chronic conditions, functional disabilities, mental health, family relations, migration history, access to health services, and related variables through personal household interviews with the subjects.

ICD Survey: Employing Disabled Americans, 1986

Investigators: International Center for the Disabled

Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. conducted the 1986 ICD Survey: Employing Disabled Americans for the International Center for the Disabled (ICD) in New York, in cooperation with the National Council on the Handicapped in Washington, DC., with major sponsorship from the Presidents Committee on Employment of Individuals with Disabilities. For the study, 921 employers of disabled Americans were interviewed about a variety of work and non-work issues. Four groups of business persons were interviewed: equal employment officers, chief executive officers, department heads/line managers, and top management personnel. Employers were questioned about their attitudes and experiences regarding employment of persons with disabilities, the impact of job discrimination, and differences between disabled and non- disabled employees. The Employers' study focused on several aspects of work and disability including: opinions and barriers to hiring persons with disabilities, workplace policies, comparisons between non- disabled and disabled employees, and suggestions for improving occupational environments, policies, and hiring practices. The study also assessed what employers' believed must be done to enable the disabled to participate fully in the occupational life of the nation. The employers' study includes 158 variables and 921 cases.

Impact Evaluation of Teen Outreach, 1984-1989

Investigators: Association of Jr. Leagues International

Teen Outreach began in 1978 as a collaborative effort between the Danforth Foundation and the St. Louis Public Schools. Its original goal was to prevent early pregnancy and to keep teens in school. In 1981, the Junior League of St. Louis assumed a major role in promoting and funding the Teen Outreach program. The Stewart Mott Foundation funded a 3-year national replication in 1983; and by 1987, a second 3-year national replication effort began under the direction of the Association of Junior Leagues International, in cooperation with the American Association of School Administrators. The number of Teen Outreach sites has increased from 9 in the 1984-85 school year to 60 in 1988-89 throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program uses a combination of small group discussion strategies and provides volunteer service in the community for its participants. Although the curriculum and volunteer service are the core components of the program and are shared by all sites, variations within these two components exist. Emphasis in curriculum topics differ between sites; some sites offer Teen Outreach as an after school activity while others offer it during school hours; some sites offer school credit for participation while others do not; and the number of classroom hours or volunteer hours are not necessarily the same between sites. The minimum standards at Teen Outreach sites are that students should meet for 1 hour per week for a year and that each student should perform a minimum of 1 hour per week of volunteer work.

Intergenerational Panel Study of Parents and Children (A Detroit Area Study), 1962-1993

Investigators: Thorton, Freedman, Axinn

The purpose and goals of the study have evolved over the life of the project. The original study was launched in 1962 as a prospective study of childbearing. The original interviews collected a wide range of information useful for predicting subsequent childbearing decisions, while the follow-up data collections through 1966 measured subsequent fertility experience. In 1977, the purposes of the study were expanded to investigate employment, divorce, and changing family attitudes while at the same time retaining the earlier emphasis on childbearing decisions. In 1980, the study shifted its emphasis to include the children in the family and how they were influenced by the homes in which they were reared. The project became interested in the ways in which the parental family influenced the attitudes, values, experiences, and plans of the children. Of particular interest were the children's attitudes and experiences in the domains of marriage, childbearing, school, work, living arrangements, and family relationships. The 1980 wave of interviews with the children was also designed to be the first wave of a prospective study of the determinants of variations in the ways children made the transition to adulthood. The 1985 survey used a life history calendar (LHC) to obtain from the young adults retrospective data about their monthly living arrangements, cohabitation, marriage, childbearing, schooling, and work. In 1993, the data were extended to cover the experiences of the children and their families as the children matured into their early thirties. A life history calendar was again used.

John F. Kennedy School of Government/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/National Public Radio Health News Interest Index: Social Security/Vitamins, 1999

Investigators: Robert J. Blendon, Catherine M. DesRoches, John M. Benson, Mollyann Brodie, & Drew E. Altman

The John F. Kennedy School of Government/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/National Public Radio Health News Interest Index: Social Security/Vitamins, 1999 was a nationally representative, public opinion telephone survey of U.S. adults. The purpose of the study was to examine the characteristics of dietary supplement users, attitudes about dietary supplements, attitudes towards government regulation of supplements, and to examine differences in attitudes between users and nonusers of dietary supplements. Data was collected from 1,208 U.S. adults, age 18 or older, between February 19 and 25, 1999.

Johns Hopkins Study of Repeat Adolescent Pregnancy, 1976-1982

Investigators: Janet B. Hardy

The purpose of this study was to obtain demographic, contraceptive, pregnancy, and pregnancy-resolution information on 725 teenage girls aged 18 years or younger who were enrolled in the postnatal follow-up component of the Johns Hopkins Adolescent Pregnancy Program during the years of 1976 to 1982. Since in many cases pregnancy data were obtained retrospectively, the actual years during which deliveries are recorded span the period of 1970 to 1982. Demographic information on the father of the baby was also obtained. Hopkins could accept about 300 of the 600 to 1700 pregnant adolescents each year, and the youngest and most at risk tended to be enrolled. Their average age was 15 years, 3 months and their average school placement, 10th grade. The majority of patients were African American. Some time after the Teenage Clinic started, a logbook was initiated in an effort follow up on teenagers enrolled in the program. For each registrant, the logbook contained information on the mother's name and medical history number, and the baby's name and medical history number. To this logbook was added information on the mother's delivery, if available; this information was obtained from the Hopkins Department of Obstetrics files. In 1977, a social worker joined the Teeange Clinic staff and began conducting intake interviews with the program's participants. These interviews generally were conducted at the time of the mother's first postnatal visit or on a subsequent follow-up visit. This first postnatal visit did not necesarily represent the first delivery or pregnancy the mother had had. Consequently, information was collected on the most recent pregnancy, as well as on previous pregnancies, when applicable. This data base contains information for up to the fourth repeat pregnancy.

Labor Market Areas, 1970, 1980

Investigators: National Opinion Research Center

A labor market area (LMA) is one or more counties with close economic ties defined by patterns of commuting to work. It is a geographically comprehensive "economic area" analogous to those represented by metropolitan statistical areas in urban areas. This dataset includes socio-economic and demographic data for all labor market areas in the US. The first data file consists of data from the 1970 Census, and has 216 variables for 1,492 cases. The second covers data from the 1980 Census, and includes 229 variables for 1,253 cases.

Longitudinal Retirement History Study 1969-1979; Earnings Summary

Investigators: United States Social Security Administration Office of Research and Statistics

The Longitudinal Retirement History Study (LRHS) is a ten-year investigation of the retirement process conducted by the Office of Research and Statistics of the Social Security Administration. Six waves of data were collected from a national sample of 11,153 persons aged 58 to 63. Baseline data were collected in 1969; follow-up surveys were administered at two-year intervals in 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979. The primary focus of this study was to assess Social Security program provisions for retired workers. A broad range of information was collected from participants and their spouses; topic areas studied include health, living arrangements, financial resources and assets, expenditures, retirement plans and attitudes, and characteristics of work lives. This dataset also includes income information from the Summary of Social Security Earnings for sample persons and spouses for the years 1951 through 1974. Widows and widowers of sample persons were extensively surveyed in the 1975 through 1979 waves of data collection.

Longitudinal Study of Aging 70 Years and Over 1984-1987; 1988; 1990

Investigators: National Center for Health Statistics

The Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), was designed to provide needed information on those factors implicated in the physical dysfunction and institutionalization of older persons in the United States. The study focuses on measuring changes in living arrangements and functional status experienced by the elderly in order to examine the path from health to functional disability to institutionalization and death. Its objectives include: (1) to study changes in functional status and living arrangements with the hope of recognizing potential points for intervention to prevent institutionalization and provide alternative forms of care to extremely elderly people, and (2) to study length of life and death rates by characteristics of the population that are not reported on death certificates, such as education, whether living alone or with others, frequency of contact with family or friends, and other characteristics. Four waves of data were collected. Baseline data were obtained in 1984 from 16,148 persons aged 55 and over as part of the Supplement on Aging (SOA) to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Follow-up questionnaires were administered in 1986, 1988, and 1990 to 7,527 persons, 70 years of age and older at the time they participated in the SOA.

Los Angeles County Study of Motivations, Roles, and Family Planning of Women, 1975

Investigators: Linda J. Beckman

The study contains data collected in 1975 from a Los Angeles County representative sample of 583 married women in their childbearing years (age 18 through 49). Information collected include contraceptive perceptions and usage, sex-role attitudes and behaviors, fertility and fertility preferences, perceived satisfactions and costs of children, perceived satisfactions and costs of motherhood, and perceived values of employment.