The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is a
longitudinal study that collects
multidisciplinary data from a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older to look at all aspects of
aging
Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The study started in 2002 and there are currently nine waves of completed data and a tenth wave is currently being collected. The survey data are designed to be used for the investigation of a broad set of topics relevant to understanding the ageing process. Both objective and subjective data are collected covering themes such as health trajectories, disability and healthy life expectancy, the determinants of economic position in older age; the links between economic position, physical health, cognition and mental health; the nature and timing of retirement and post-retirement, labour market activity; household and family structure, social networks and social supports; patterns, determinants and consequences of social, civic and cultural participation and predictors of well-being.
ELSA is led by Professor
Andrew Steptoe and is jointly run by teams at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
(UCL), the
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS),
National Centre for Social Research
The National Centre for Social Research is a registered charity trading as NatCen Social Research and is the largest independent social research institute in the UK. The research charity was founded in 1969 by Sir Roger Jowell and Gerald Hoinvill ...
,
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
and the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
.
Funding
ELSA is funded jointly by the
National Institute on Aging in the US and a consortium of UK government departments:
Department of Health and Social Care;
Department for Work and Pensions; and
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
coordinated by the
National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Funding has also been provided by the
Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...
.
Study design and data collection
The first wave of ELSA achieved a sample comprising 11,050 respondents aged 50 and over on 1 March 2002. Sample members are drawn from respondents to the
Health Survey For England (HSE) and the initial data collected for that survey are subsequently linked to the ongoing ELSA measurements. For waves 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 refreshment samples selected from HSE 2001–04; 2006; 2009–2011; 2011–2012; and HSAE 2013–2015 were added, respectively. The main interview takes the form of a personal interview using CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview) followed by a short self-completion questionnaire. Other components of the study include: a nurse visit involving measurements of physical function, anthropometric measurements and blood/saliva samples; a life-history interview collecting information on lifetime family circumstances, place of residence, employment and major health events prior to the baseline interview; and an end of life interview, initially adapted from US
Health and Retirement Study (HRS), carried out by close friends/relatives of an eligible ELSA respondent who has died to collect information about the respondent’s circumstances in the period since the final interview and their death.
Over the course of the study to date, the following data have been collected:
* March 2002 - March 2003: Wave 1 Interview
* June 2004 - June 2005: Wave 2 Interview + Nurse visit
* May 2006 - August 2007: Wave 3 Interview
* March 2007 – October 2007: Life-history interview
* May 2008 - June 2009: Wave 4 Interview + Nurse visit
* June 2010 - June 2011: Wave 5 Interview
* May 2012 - June 2013: Wave 6 Interview + Nurse visit
* June 2014 - June 2015: Wave 7 Interview
* May 2016 - June 2017: Wave 8 Interview + Nurse visit (nurse visit carried out on half of the sample)
* July 2018 - July 2019: Wave 9 Interview + Nurse visit (nurse visit carried out on half of the sample)
* June 2020 - July 2020: ELSA COVID-19 Study Wave 1 (online and telephone survey)
* November - December 2020: ELSA COVID-19 Study Wave 2 (online and telephone survey)
* Wave 10 of the main study is due to start in October 2021
Data and findings
Users registered with the
UK Data Service
The UK Data Service is the largest digital repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data in the United Kingdom. The organisation is funded by the UK government through the Economic and Social Research C ...
(UKDS) can access the ELSA datasets via a web-based download service. A list of publications using ELSA data is maintained on the ELSA website. A selection of descriptive findings from each wave of the study are published every two years and can be downloaded from the website.
Studies based on the ELSA showed that people who are not
socially isolated can still be
lonely. Loneliness was linked to
depression, even among people who were not socially isolated. One study also showed that loneliness and not social isolation is a predictor for developing
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
.
Both of these studies underlined the distinction between social isolation and loneliness.
ELSA genetic data
Several genetic data products are available in ELSA: Directly genotyped data; quality controlled genetic data; Polygenic Risk Score Data; Genetic imputation; and Genetic data linked to phenotypic data. Researchers who wish to link the ELSA GWAS or existing candidate gene polymorphisms with ELSA phenotypic data are required to submit a full application to the ELSA Genetic Data Access Committee (ELSA-GDAC).
Related studies
ELSA was established as a sister study to the
Health and Retirement Study in the US. ELSA is now part of a growing network of longitudinal ageing studies around the world which provide national data on ageing as well as the opportunity for cross-national comparisons:
* Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing ALSA
* Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging ELSI
* Canadian Longitudinal Study on Ageing CLSA ÉLCV
*
China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study CHARLS
* Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study CRELES
* Healthy Ageing in Scotland HAGIS
* Longitudinal Aging Study in India LASI
* Indonesia Family Life Survey IFLS
*
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a nationally representative longitudinal study of the population of Ireland aged 50 and above. TILDA aims to understand the health, social and financial circumstances of the older Irish population ...
TILDA
* Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement JSTAR
* Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging KLoSA
* Malaysia Ageing and Retirement Survey MARS
* Mexican Health and Aging Study MHAS
* New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement Survey NZHWR
* Northern Ireland Cohort Longitudinal Study of Ageing NICOLA
* Panel Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Thailand HART
*
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe SHARE
Health differences between England and the US
ELSA and HRS data were used to directly compare measures of health, income, and education amongst 55- to 64-year-olds in England and the US.
[Banks, J., M. Marmot, Z. Oldfield and J.Smith (2006), Disease and disadvantage in the United States and in England, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 295, No. 17 (May); 2037-2045] The rates of disease (specifically heart disease, diabetes and cancer) across income groups (low, middle and high income) were significantly higher in the US than England. Differences were found not to be due to measurement or study design, risk factors such as current levels of obesity, drinking and smoking, (which were controlled for) did not explain very much of the international differences. Biomarker data confirmed that these differences in disease were real and not a result of differential reporting behaviour across countries.
References
External links
ELSA websiteELSA respondent’s websiteELSA datasets
{{Authority control
Old age in the United Kingdom
British medical research
Cohort studies
Genetics in the United Kingdom
Gerontology
University College London