PROJECT PAGE
Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a nationally representative longitudinal study of individuals over age 50 living in the USA. The sample size is about 20,000 at every wave, but to keep the sample representative of the population over age 50, HRS refreshes the sample every six years with younger cohorts not previously interviewed. HRS focuses on four broad topics: income and wealth; health, cognition and use of healthcare services; work and retirement; and family connections. HRS data are also linked at the individual level to administrative records from Social Security and Medicare, Veteran’s Administration, the National Death Index, and employer-provided pension plan information. HRS participants have been interviewed every 2 years since 1992. HRS first included a psychosocial questionnaire with personality items in 2006. Half of the sample answered this questionnaire in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018; the other half answered it in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Therefore, there was a four-year interval between each wave, totaling 12 years across the four waves. For more details about the study, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3997380/pdf/dyu067.pdf and http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/index.php.
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. David R. Weir
General Information
Country of Data Collection: USA
Years of Data Collection: 1992-present
Study Status: Ongoing
Total Number of Assessments Completed: 15
Approx. Retention Rate: 85%-90%
Sample
Composition: Nationally Representative
*Note: The sample size is about 20,000 at every wave, but to keep the sample representative of the population over age 50, HRS refreshes the sample every six years with younger cohorts not previously interviewed.
Sex
SES
*Nationally representative
Race/Ethnicity
*Nationally representative
Personality Data
Construct
Big Five
Cynical Hostility
Anxiety
Anger Expression
Purpose in Life
Mastery
Sense of Control
Hopelessness
Optimism
Self-Control
Loneliness
Scale
Midlife Development Inventory
Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory
Beck Anxiety Inventory
Spielberger Anger Expression Scale
Ryff Measures of Psychological Well-Being
Ryff Measures of Psychological Well-Being
Ryff Measures of Psychological Well-Being
Various items from Everson et al. and Beck et al.
Life Orientation Test
Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire
Abbrev. UCLA Loneliness Scale
Waves*
T8-T15
T8-T11
T8-T11
T8-T11
T8-T15
T8-T15
T8-T15
T8-T15
T8-T15
T10, T11
T8-T15
Method
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
Self-Report
*Note: Personality data were only collected from 2006-2020 (Time 8 through 15), and only half the sample was administered the personality measure at each wave, so there are 4 waves of personality data for the total sample. The 4 waves of personality data have 4 years between each wave, so there is a 12-year total time span for longitudinal participants. The Mean age of the participants at the first personality assessment in 2006 was 68.50 years (SD = 10.50). For more information about the measures administered in the Psychosocial and Lifestyle Questionnaire, see here.
administrative records
affect
cognitive ability/iq
genes
Happiness, well-being, life satisfaction
job/work
life events
mental health
neighborhood
parenting
physical health
psychophysiology
relationships
Data Access
Project Website: https://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/index.php
Codebook Available Online: Yes, https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/documentation
Data Available Online: Some — Public, sensitive, and restricted data can be accessed through the HRS website ( https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/about). Public data are available to all registered users. Researchers at RAND Corporation have created a user-friendly version of much of the HRS public data. The RAND contribution is available through the HRS website and is a good starting place for new users.
Project Proposal Required to Use Data: Not for publicly available data, but sensitive and restricted data require submission of a separate data use agreement. Sensitive data application: https://hrsdata.isr.umich.edu/data-products/sensitive-health/order-form. Restricted data application: https://hrsdata.isr.umich.edu/rda.
Contact
Contact: hrsquestions@umich.edu