Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The ELSA teaching data file contains information obtained from individual interviews and self-completion questionnaires from all 12,100 ELSA participants.

The file contains less than a tenth of the number of variables available on the main ELSA file and is designed for use as a teaching aid and also as a sampler for new and potential users of the main data.

Variable names are the same as those on the original ELSA dataset, held under SN 5050.


Main Topics:

The individual interview comprised the following twelve modules:

household demographics (variables prefixed DH);

individual demographics (DI);

health (HE);

social participation (SP);

work and pensions (WP);

income and assets (IA);

housing (HO);

cognitive function (CF);

expectations (EX);

psycho-social health (PS);

final questions (FQ);

self-completion (SC).

The teaching dataset contains selected variables from each of these modules, with the exception of household demographics. In total there are 408 variables in the dataset.

Please note that the teaching dataset does not include Wave 0 (Health Survey for England) data; nor does the data file contain a unique identifier that would allow the file to be merged with other ELSA files.

Standard Measures
General Health Questionnaire (12-item):
Goldberg, D.P. Manual of the General Health Questionnaire, Windsor:NFER-Nelson, 1978.

CASP-19:
Hyde, M., et al. (2003) 'A measure of quality of life in early old age: the theory, development and properties of a needs satisfaction model [CASP-19]', Ageing and Mental Health, 7, pp.186-194.