National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP): Wave 3, [United States], 2015-2016

The National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) is a 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. Wave 3 was conducted from September 2015 through November 2016, where 2,409 surviving Wave 2 respondents were reinterviewed, and a New Cohort consisting of adults born between 1948 and 1965 together with their spouses or coresident partners was added. All together, 4,777 respondents were interviewed in Wave 3. The following files constitute Wave 3: Core Data, Social Networks Data, Disposition of Returning Respondent Partner Data, and Proxy Data.Included in the Core files (Datasets 1 and 2) 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, history of sexual and intimate partnerships and patient-physician communication, in addition to bereavement items. In addition data on a panel of biomeasures including, weight, waist circumference, height, and blood pressure was collected. The Social Networks (Datasets 3 and 4) files detail respondents' current relationship status with each person identified on the network roster. The Disposition of Returning Respondent Partner (Datasets 5 and 6) files detail information derived from Section 6A items regarding the partner from Waves 1 and 2 within the questionnaire. This provides a complete history for respondent partners across both waves. The Proxy (Datasets 7 and 8) files contain final health data for Wave 1 and Wave 2 respondents who could not participate in NSHAP due to disability or death