Add Health is pleased to be at the Population Association of America’s Annual Meeting this week. Throughout the conference, researchers using Add Health data will be sharing their work in a wide range of sessions and poster presentations. To view the full list of presentations, please see the link below, or visit the Add Health booth (#209) during exhibit hall hours.
The following data is now available from Add Health:
Wave VI Baroreflex Sensitivity and Hemodynamic Recovery
This file contains constructed measures for baroreflex sensitivity, heart rate recovery, and systolic blood pressure recovery for the Wave VI respondents.
Wave VI Home Exam Health & Quality Control Metrics
This file contains data collected during the Wave VI home exam that may be useful to investigators, but that is not included in other Wave VI user guides or codebooks. This data includes respondent provided general health metrics, as well as several measures of quality control related to the home exam. These QC metrics encompass various time intervals dealing with the home exam blood collection, shipping and receiving of blood samples, blood plasma and serum tube conditions, and assay times at the Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research (LCBR).
Wave VI Infection
This file contains constructed measures designed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of infection based on venous blood collection via phlebotomy at the Wave VI home exam. These measures include results for Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV). Several SARV-CoV-2 measures are also described, including Nucleocapsid, Receptor Binding Domain (RBD), and Spike Concentration types.
Wave VI Mover Distance
The dataset provides the distance, in meters, between each respondent’s home residence in each of the previous waves and their Wave VI residence.
Wave I, II, III, IV, V & VI Grouping Data
The dataset contains location identifiers, based on 2020 Census block group FIPS codes, for all six Add Health waves. They are longitudinally consistent across all waves.
For additional recently released datasets, please visit the File Inventory. These data are only available to users with SRW or Home Institution contracts. The files are already available on the SRW and will be available soon to Home Institution users. For more information on the SRW and Home Institution contract options, please visit the Restricted-Use Contract Options page.
Add Health is pleased to announce the following Wave VI Public-Use Data are now available:
Public-use data are available from three sources: Add Health Dataverse hosted by UNC’s Research Data Management Core, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA). Users may obtain the data from any of these sources, depending on their needs. The public-use data sets contain all the survey data from In-Home Interviews but only for a subset of the full Add Health sample. We release a smaller sample through the public-use data set to limit deductive disclosure risk. Public-use data doesn’t contain ID numbers of friends, siblings or romantic partners, nor does it contain files on genetics, disposition, neighborhood contextual measures, or Add CAPS (Cognitive, Physical, and Sensory) measures.
Recently featured in The New York Times, a study by R.C. Whitaker et al. used Add Health data to examine the link between adolescents’ sense of connection with their families and their social connectedness in adulthood—showcasing the unique value of long-term, longitudinal research. “Two decades of information gives us a greater sense of the truth,” said Dr. David Willis, a professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University who was not involved in the study. “Two decades of information is compelling. It’s a big deal.”
Among 7,018 participants, the researchers found strong, significant positive associations between higher levels of family connection in adolescence and greater social connection in adulthood. Adults who reported the highest levels of family connection during adolescence were more than twice as likely to experience high social connection later in life compared with those who reported the lowest levels. As loneliness and social isolation continue to rise across the United States—along with their negative health impacts—these findings suggest that close-knit, nurturing family environments in childhood may help foster healthier social cohesion and more enduring social relationships in adulthood.
To read the full article, click the link below. For more important findings using Add Health data, visit the Add Health publications page.
Whitaker RC, Dearth-Wesley T, Herman AN, Jordan MC. Family Connection in Adolescence and Social Connection in Adulthood. JAMA Pediatr. Published online January 26, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.5816
Add Health will be at the Population Association of America’s (PAA) Annual Meeting, held May 6–9, 2026, in St. Louis, Missouri. The meeting brings together demographers, social scientists, and health researchers from around the world, offering attendees opportunities to take part in engaging sessions and connect with colleagues. Stop by Add Health booth #209 to speak with project staff, learn about new data releases, and discover more about the study. Staff will be available daily during exhibit hours.
More information can be found at the PAA website. Specific presentations using Add Health data will be listed soon.
Add Health is excited to announce the release of three new biomarker datasets:
In addition, we are releasing two new Mortality Outcomes Surveillance datasets:
For additional recently released datasets, please visit the File Inventory.
Please note that Mortality Outcomes Surveillance: Death Certificate Data, 2018 Update is a Special Request dataset, and is only available to SRW to users who have an existing SRW contract and who have signed the Add Health Data Access Agreement. For more information, please see the requirements for using this dataset.
The three biomarker datasets and the Mortality Outcomes Surveillance: Coroner/Medical Examiner Report Data, 2018 Update data available to users with SRW or Home Institution contracts. The files are already available on the SRW and will be available soon to Home Institution users. For more information on the SRW and Home Institution contract options, please visit the Restricted-Use Contract Options page.
Using nationally representative data from Waves I, II, IV, and V of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), Dr. Kim et. al. examined the impact of loneliness during adolescence on health and well-being later in adulthood. Loneliness was measured with a survey question asking how often participants felt lonely in the past week, with response options ranging from “never” to “most or all of the time.” Investigators examined whether this loneliness increased between Waves I and II, when participants were approximately 15 years old. Including covariates, researchers assessed over 40 health outcomes in Waves IV and V, when participants were approximately ages 28 and 37, spanning physical health, behavioral health, mental health, social factors, and civic and prosocial behavior.
The research team found that the participants experiencing more loneliness in their adolescent years had worse mental health outcomes, psychological well-being outcomes, and social outcomes but not physical health outcomes, health behavior outcomes or civic and prosocial outcomes. These results suggest that increases in adolescent loneliness are associated with worsened mental and socio-emotional aspects of adult health. However, because follow-up occurred at relatively young adult ages, additional physical health complications may emerge later in life.
To read the full article click the link below. For more important findings using Add Health data, visit the Add Health publications page.
Kim, Eric S., et al. “Loneliness During Adolescence and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Adulthood: An Outcome-Wide Longitudinal Approach.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 77, no. 1, July 2025, pp. 66-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.12.011.
Add Health is excited to announce the following data are now available:
Wave V Epigenetic Clocks: Biological aging measures were derived from DNA methylation data for 4,626 unique study participants based on blood collected during the Wave V home exam. The measures include Horvath, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DunedinPACE, Principal Component clocks, and cell type proportion estimates.
For additional recently released datasets, please visit the File Inventory. These data are only available to users with SRW or Home Institution contracts. The files are already available on the SRW and will be available soon to Home Institution users.
For more information on the SRW and Home Institution contract options, please visit the Restricted-Use Contract Options page.
A recent study using nationally representative data from Waves IV and V of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) examines the effects of long-term exposure to two widely cited pollutants, ozone (O₃) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM₂.₅), on allergy and asthma diagnoses in adolescents and young adults. Ozone and particulate matter were measured using annual average concentrations generated from the EPA’s Fused Air Quality Surface using Downscaling (FAQSD) data and assigned to participants based on their tract of residence in each wave. Health outcomes were measured using self-reported survey questions asking whether the participant’s child had ever been diagnosed with asthma or allergies, with relevant covariates included in the analysis.
The study focused on 6,860 children between the ages of 10 and 25 of the original Add Health participants from Waves IV and V. Findings showed that exposure to ozone and particulate matter was associated with a higher likelihood of asthma in females aged 10 to 12 and a higher likelihood of allergies in males aged 13 and above. This study shows that air pollution can have varying health impacts, dependent upon timing and demographics, which emphasizes that environmental regulations and interventions must account for both age and sex.
To read the full article click the link below. For more important findings using Add Health data, visit the Add Health publications page.
Amialchuk, Aliaksandr, and Onur Sapci. “The Effect of Long-Term Exposure to O3 and PM2.5 on Allergies and Asthma in Adolescents and Young Adults.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 22, no. 8, Aug. 2025, p. 1262. doi:10.3390/ijerph22081262.
There is a large pool of research focusing on how adolescents’ perceptions of survival predict important aspects of their young adult lives, especially their physical and mental health, risky behaviors, and socioeconomic status. Using nationally representative data from Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), Carlyn Graham et. al. investigated whether those perceptions extend beyond these aspects to actually predict premature mortality, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, health, and behavioral factors. Perceived survival expectations were measured using a single Wave I survey question asking, “What do you think are the chances you will live to age 35?” Responses ranged from “almost no chance” to “almost certain” and were categorized into three groups: “50% chance or less,” “a good chance,” and “almost certain.” The outcome, all-cause mortality (measured binarily as alive or deceased), was tracked from Wave I (1994–95) through December 2021 using the Mortality Outcomes Surveillance Data files.
The study included 18,923 participants and findings showed that when adjusting for sex and race, adolescents who perceived a 50% chance or less of surviving to age 35 had a higher risk of mortality compared to those who were almost certain they would survive. The strength of this association was weakened after sequentially adjusting for socioeconomic status, physical and mental health, risky behaviors, and exposure to violence. When separating analysis by sex, lower perceived survival was strongly associated with higher premature mortality risk among female adolescents, but not males. This study highlights the importance of addressing adolescents’ survival perceptions, emphasizing that healthcare providers should pay special attention to females’ sense of risk at a young age.
To read the full article click the link below. For more important findings using Add Health data, visit the Add Health publications page.
Graham, Carlyn, Robert A. Hummer, and Carolyn T. Halpern. 2025. “Gazing into the Crystal Ball: Do Adolescent Survival Expectations Predict Premature Mortality Risk in the United States?” Social Science & Medicine 364:117548. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117548.
