Ancillary Studies

The Add Health study has a longstanding commitment to advancing scientific discovery by collaborating with investigators of Ancillary Studies that extend the scope of Add Health for the benefit of the research community and Add Health users. Add Health Ancillary Studies have added a substantial amount of additional data for users, including contextual information on the communities and states in which participants reside, biological measures of the health of participants, and new survey measures. Past Ancillary Studies have added rich datasets to the Add Health archive that have been used by thousands of researchers and have greatly contributed to scientific knowledge.

What is an ancillary study? An Ancillary Study is any study that adds data to Add Health that is beyond what is included in the activities of the core Add Health Study. Ancillary Study costs are supported by the investigator, and must be approved by Add Health before any grants for support are submitted for funding. Ancillary Studies are classified into two types, with distinct applications:

        1. Contextual: Merges secondary data sources or constructed variables to Add Health respondent records that requires unique identifiers (e.g., geocodes, school identifiers) to perform these linkages.
        2. Biospecimen: Uses archived biospecimens collected by the Add Health Study to conduct new assays.