ELSA Harmonised Study
**Acknowledgement:**
The original data that was harmonised in ATHLOS comes from ELSA Waves 1 (v3), 2 (v4), 3 (v4), 4 (v3), 5 (v4), 6 (v2) and 7 (v1). Data for waves 1 to 6 were retrieved from the 23rd edition in 2015, and wave 7 data in 2018. See https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/ for methodological details.
The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing was developed by a team of researchers based at University College London, NatCen Social Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the University of Manchester and the University of East Anglia. The data were collected by NatCen Social Research. The funding is currently provided by the National Institute on Aging (Ref: R01AG017644) and by a consortium of UK government departments: Department for Health and Social Care; Department for Transport; Department for Work and Pensions, which is coordinated by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR, Ref: 198-1074). Funding has also been provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
**References:**
* Banks, J., Batty, G.D., Breedvelt, J.J.F., Coughlin, K., Crawford, R., Marmot, M., Nazroo, J., Oldfield, Z., Steel, N., Steptoe, A., Wood, Martin., Zaninotto, P. (2021) English Longitudinal Study of Ageing: Waves 0-9, 1998-2019 [data collection]. 36th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5050, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5050-23
Harmonization Study Design
A harmonised dataset can be created for each wave and population according to the ATHLOS DataSchema and the harmonisation codes located on Github:
DataSchema: https://athlos.pssjd.org/ws/file-dl/network/athlos/DataSchema_ATHLOS.xlsx
Harmonisation codes: https://github.com/athlosproject/athlos-project.github.io/tree/master/ELSA
Anyone interested in using the harmonised data from the ELSA study via the ATHLOS DataSchema should register on the website https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk, download the necessary data and use the harmonisation codes. For more detailed help on this process, please contact us.
ELSA population
A representative sample of individuals living in a private household in England aged 50 and older (born before March 1952) at the time of the first wave of fieldwork.