The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) began in 1992 as a nationally representative, longitudinal, multidisciplinary survey of individuals over age 50 in the United States. Since then, it has been fielded every 2 years with periodic refresher samples to maintain a nationally representative sample over time. As population aging has progressed in every region of the world, the success of the HRS generated substantial interest in collecting similar data in a similar manner, leading to the development of a number of surveys designed to be comparable with the HRS.

The HRS family of studies share some common characteristics including being population representative of older adults, longitudinal, multidisciplinary, having coordinated survey instruments, enhanced economic data, and integrated biomarkers. All HRS family studies distribute their data to the research community.

Several of these studies conduct an end of life interview (also called exit or next of kin interview) after a respondent has passed away to obtain information on the respondent's death, the time preceding their death, as well as the disposition of their assets.

Overview

Find information about each study with an end of life interview catalogued by the Gateway.