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Wave I & II School District Grouping Data

To facilitate clustering by school district, the school district identifiers comprising this file are based on the Local education agency identification numbers (LEAID) of the school districts in which the Wave I school, Wave I residence, and Wave II residence were situated. The first two characters of this LEAID represent state and reflect state codes assigned by Add Health in other disseminated data similarly intended for clustering at different geographic areas. N=84,166

This datafile has additional requirements for access, please read the requirements carefully before requesting. The requirements are listed on the CPC Data Portal.

Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset.

For more information on the CPC Data Portal, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Add Health Director, Dr. Robert Hummer, will participate in the Center For Studies in Demography & Ecology (CSDE) Seminar series on Friday, March 3rd at 12:30 PM PT.

In addition to Dr. Hummer, this expert panel includes Professor Luciana (Lucy) Hebert (WSU) and Dr. Phil Hurvitz (CSDE), who will introduce the Add Health Data and the fascinating, exciting and innovative data that are available when you can access the secure data files housed within the CSDE’s UW Data Collaborative. For over 25 years, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) project has provided the scientific community with innovative data to understand the health and social life of a nationally representative cohort of Americans who were in grades 7-12 in 1994-95. The data now include five waves of data, social network and biomarker information, parental data, mental health information and more. The panel will introduce the Add Health data, including a discussion of which data sets are available, how to search for variables users may be interested in the different data sets, and how to access the data, particularly within the UW Data Collaborative (https://dcollab.uw.edu/data/add-health/). Examples of research results will also be presented.

To register, visit the CSDE Seminar Series website.

The following data are now available to Add Health contract researchers. 

Historical Neighborhood Redlining
This contextual database allows researchers to identify potential long-term consequences of redlining for contemporary inequities in neighborhood environments, and individual health and socioeconomic attainment over the life course. N=20,706

Waves III – V Multi-year Air Pollution Exposure Estimates
The air pollution data described here provide longer-term estimates of air pollution exposure that can be used to address a broad range of research questions related to how air pollution exposure over time may relate to a variety of health outcomes. N=20,745

This datafile has special requirements for access, please see requirements listed on the CPC Data Portal.

Waves I & II School Desegregation Disparities
This file contains data on the levels of school racial segregation experienced by Add Health respondents during their school-age years, related school district characteristics, and measures of tract-level residential segregation present in adulthood (Waves III-V). N=84,166

Wave V Birth Records Database
The Add Health Birth Records Database describes the birth event of Add Health sample members (AHSMs) born between 1974 and 1983. This database was constructed using birth certificate information and birth data of AHSMs reported by AHSMs and their parents. The Birth Records Database represents a subset of the larger Add Health study sample and is composed of AHSMs consenting to Add Health’s use of their birth record data and born in states with agreements to make birth record data available to Add Health. N=2,391 Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset. 

For more information on the CPC Data Portal, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Former Add Health Director, Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris, will join panelists to speak at the Interdisciplinary Association of Population Health (IAPHS) webinar, “Warts and All: Successes and Failures in Population Health Grant Writing,” on Thursday, February 16th from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT. In this webinar, esteemed panelists (all of whom are past presidents of IAPHS) will discuss how their grant proposal “failures” helped them learn valuable lessons along the way, which will give us a more balanced sense of what a fulfilling career in population health looks like. In addition to Dr. Harris, panelists include Dr. Mark Hayward, Dr. Bruce Link, and Dr. Roland J. Thorpe, Jr.

For more information or to register for the webinar, visit the IAPHS event page.

Add Health Director, Dr. Robert Hummer, will be giving a seminar at the UCLA California Center for Population Health on Wednesday, February 8th, from 12:00 pm to 1:20 pm PST. His talk, titled “Assessing Cognitive Functioning and Health Disparities in Early Midlife: A Sneak Peek at Wave VI of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health),” highlights initial findings from the Wave VI pilot study, along with new measures added and Wave VI timeline. The full abstract is below; for more CCPR seminars and a recording of the presentation, visit the CCPR event page.

Abstract: For over 25 years, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) project has provided the scientific community with innovative data to understand the health and social life of a nationally representative cohort of Americans who were in grades 7-12 in 1994-95. The Add Health cohort is now in their 40s. Recently funded primarily by the National Institute on Aging, Wave VI of Add Health is currently in the field and is focused on providing the scientific community with novel data on the cognitive and sensory/physical functioning, social life, health, and health behavior of the cohort. This presentation by the principal investigator and director of Add Health will focus on findings from some of the Wave VI pilot data, which tested innovative methods for assessing the cognitive, physical, and sensory functioning of this early midlife cohort. The presentation will also provide an overview of the innovative design of Wave VI, information on some of the new measures that have been added to the survey and biological data collection, and a timeline of the fieldwork and data dissemination plan.

Add Health has released the following data for contract users:

Wave V Hepatic Injury

This file contains constructed measures designed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of hepatic injury based on venous blood collected via phlebotomy at the Wave V home exam.  Assay results for aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) are available, as well as three semi-quantitative serum index assays – lipemia, hemolysis and icterus – to evaluate the possibility of interference with the AST or ALT assays.  Moreover, two constructed measures are available – the AST/ALT ratio and its classification. N=5,381

Wave V Renal Function Addendum

This file contains constructed measures designed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of renal function based on venous blood collected via phlebotomy at the Wave V home exam. Updated estimations of the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) based on 2021 guidelines are available using either the creatinine concentration or using both the creatinine and cystatin C concentrations.  The estimations of GFR have been calculated according to the 2021 NIDDK CKD-EPI guidelines.  Classifications of the new estimations according to both clinical and KDIGO guidelines are available as well. N=5,381

Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset. 

Add Health is excited to be attending the 2022 Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Conference from November 2 – 6, 2022. Visit the Add Health exhibit booth to learn more about our plethora of data or to have your questions answered by staff. For additional information on the GSA conference and schedule visit the GSA website.

Life expectancy at birth in the United States declined for the second year in a row in 2021 and is now 76.1 years. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s The Well recently sat down with Add Health Director Dr. Robert A. Hummer to get the inside story on the causes of the decline. Dr. Hummer acknowledges the impact Covid-19 has had on the population. At the same time, however, other reasons for the decline began prior to the pandemic and are also very important. Combining the recent pandemic with mortality increases due to suicide, the opioid and obesity epidemics, and more highlights how unhealthy U.S. society is as a whole. Also critically important, these declines in life expectancy are not equal across demographic groups; the declines have been particularly striking among the Alaska Native and American Indian population, the Black and Hispanic populations, and among those who have a high school or lower education. Dr. Hummer recognizes the importance of the rapid development of technical solutions to health problems in the United States, such as medications, vaccines, and surgical procedures. However, where the U.S. falls short are with social and economic solutions to our health problems. Dr. Hummer states that, as a society, we need to reduce racial, ethnic, and education/income inequalities, curb racism, increase minimum wage, and provide greater access to childcare to help increase our life expectancy and reduce disparities. If we work seriously on these social and economic solutions, Dr. Hummer believes that pandemics and new health problems won’t be as impactful in the future.

To read the full interview, visit The Well.

The following data are now available to Add Health contract researchers. 

      Wave IV dbGaP GWAS Sample Weight
      A weight component for the dbGaP GWAS Sample. N=9,975

Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset. 

For more information on the CPC Data Portal, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Add Health has released the following data to contract researchers:

Individual Vital Status and Underlying Cause of Death File, 2019

This file contains one record for each of the 20,745 Add Health sample members from Wave I. It provides the vital status of each sample member as well as the National Death Index-provided underlying cause of death code in ICD-10 format for each decedent. The month and year of the most recent Add Health interview are provided for living sample members, while the month and year of death are provided for decedents. N=20,745

Ordered Cause of Death File, 2019

This file contains entity- and record-axis codes reported by the National Death Index (NDI) for each decedent in the Add Health sample. The file is arranged hierarchically, by axis code; therefore, each decedent may have multiple records depending on the maximum number of entity- and record-axis codes recorded by NDI. The sequence of the decedent’s records reflects the order in which the entity- and record-axis codes were reported in the NDI record. N=1,745

All Coded Causes of Death File, Including Entity-Axis Codes, 2019

This file contains all underlying cause of death and entity-axis codes appearing in the National Death Index (NDI) source file. Functioning as dummy variables, zero represents the absence of a code on the decedent’s death certificate, while one denotes the presence of one. N=540

All Coded Causes of Death File, Including Record-Axis Codes, 2019

This file contains all underlying cause of death and record-axis codes appearing in the National Death Index (NDI) source file. Functioning as dummy variables, zero represents the absence of a code on the decedent’s death certificate, while one denotes the presence of one. N=540

Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset. 

For more information on the CPC Data Portal, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.