Finding Health Data and Statistics: Older Adults

Data Archives

National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging
"The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), located within ICPSR, is funded by the National Institute on Aging. NACDA's mission is to advance research on aging by helping researchers to profit from the under-exploited potential of a broad range of datasets. NACDA acquires and preserves data relevant to gerontological research, processing as needed to promote effective research use, disseminates them to researchers, and facilitates their use. By preserving and making available the largest library of electronic data on aging in the United States, NACDA offers opportunities for secondary analysis on major issues of scientific and policy relevance."

Studies

National Institute on Aging (NIA)
The Population Studies Database brings together in one searchable location information about a range of population studies of interest to the research on aging community. 

NIA's Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging is America's longest-running scientific study of human aging.

Health and Retirement Study
Access to data for secondary analysis from this biannual survey (conducted by the University of Michigan) of older Americans that "paints an emerging portrait of an aging America's physical and mental health, insurance coverage, financial status, family support systems, labor market status, and retirement planning." The report Growing Older in America: The Health and Retirement Study provides summary statistics.

National Center for Health Statistics

Longitudinal Studies of Aging
"The Longitudinal Studies of Aging (LSOAs) is a collaborative project of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). It is a multicohort study of persons 70 years of age and over designed primarily to measure changes in the health, functional status, living arrangements, and health services utilization of two cohorts of Americans as they move into and through the oldest ages."

National Home and Hospice Care Survey
The 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) is one in a continuing series of nationally representative sample surveys of U.S. home health and hospice agencies. It is designed to provide descriptive information on home health and hospice agencies, their staffs, their services, and their patients. NHHCS was first conducted in 1992 and was repeated in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000, and most recently in 2007.

National Nursing Home Survey
"The National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS) is a continuing series of national sample surveys of nursing homes, their residents, and their staff. Although each of these surveys emphasized different topics, they all provided some common basic information about nursing homes, their residents, and their staff. All nursing homes included in this survey had at least three beds and were either certified (by Medicare or Medicaid) or had a state license to operate as a nursing home."

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Two national employment and labor surveys, National Longitudinal Survey of Older and Young Men and the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature and Young Women, also include a considerable number of variables related to health and family.