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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. 

Thank you to all our amazing staff, presenters, moderators, and attendees for making the 2022 Add Health Users Conference a huge success! We had a great time seeing everyone in person and learning more about how Add Health data is used. The Plenary and Methodology presentations are now available for viewing. We hope to see you all again at the next users conference in 2024!

Presentations

Plenary Session: Add Health History, New Data, and Future Plans

• Brief Add Health History, Updates, and Exciting Plans for Wave VI presented by Dr. Robert A. Hummer
• New Findings from Wave V presented by Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris
• Add Health Parent Study: Recent Findings & Updates presented by Dr. V. Joseph Hotz

Methodology Sessions

• Existing Resources and Future Opportunities and Longitudinal Considerations in Contextual Data Analysis presented by Dr. Lauren Gaydosh and Dr. Iliya Gutin
• Measures of Race/Ethnicity in Add Health presented by Dr. Taylor Hargrove
• Skin Tone and the Health Returns to Higher Status Among Black Americans presented by Reed DeAngelis
• Modeling Trajectories of Cognitive Function Across the Life Course: Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) Combining Add Health and Other Cohort Studies presented by Dr. Yang Claire Yang
• Contextual and Longitudinal Approaches for Understanding Risk Factors of AD/ADRD presented by Dr. Chantel Martin
• Polygenic Scores in Add Health presented by Dr. David Braudt
• The Genomics of Add Health presented by Dr. Brandt Levitt
• Add Health Wave V Biological Data and Vital Events presented by Dr. Eric Whitsel
• Best Practices in Finding and Using Add Health Data presented by Dr. Robert A. Hummer

The final agenda for the 2022 Add Health Users Conference is now available.

The conference program features over 40 presentations by investigators who are conducting research on the health and well-being of adolescents and adults using Add Health data. In addition, methodology sessions will be offered providing in-depth information on contextual data within Add Health, racial inequalities, cognitive function, genomics, biological data, and how best to use and analyze the Add Health data sets.

The principal goal of the conference is to give researchers who are working with data from Add Health an opportunity to share research goals, experiences, and results.  It will also provide an opportunity for those interested in working with the data to learn how they are currently being used by others. 

The conference is being co-sponsored by the National Institute of Aging, NIH; the Add Health Study at the Carolina Population Center, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information, visit the conference website.

“America’s kids are not all right — we need urgent action to save young lives,” the title of a recent op-ed in The Hill by Add Health Director, Dr. Hummer, says it all. As COVID-19 continues, concerns regarding the mental health of children and young adults have become a popular topic of conversation. But the truth is, kids were not all right before the pandemic. “Americans under age 25 face higher death rates and lower life expectancies than their peers in other affluent nations,” remarks Hummer in his recent piece. The infant mortality rate is three times higher in the U.S. than in other affluent countries, accounting for almost 21,000 deaths of the nearly 60,000 people under the age of 25 who died in America in 2019. Childhood poverty also plays a large role in the risk of dying early. Despite government benefits, such as food assistance and housing vouchers, one report showed that the U.S. child poverty rate is the second-highest out of 35 advanced economies. 

Dr. Hummer’s op-ed suggests that “many young lives could be saved through policies and interventions addressing social and economic inequities.” By reducing child poverty and providing access to childcare, preschool, housing, nutrition, and healthcare, many young lives could be saved. Another crucial avenue to lower death rates is to improve access to quality healthcare and reproductive health programs by addressing the racial and ethnic barriers. The risk of death before age 25 is 60% higher among Black children and adolescents than their white peers. Dr. Hummer states, “Policymakers and community leaders need to take a hard look at what can be done to implement reforms that will save young lives. In our incredibly wealthy country, we must assure that our children are not in poverty, have their health care needs met and are free from the dangers of firearm violence. We owe our children and adolescents at least this much.”

Visit The Hill to read the full article.

Add Health is hitting the road! We are excited to attend the PAA 2022 annual meeting from April 6, 2022, to April 9, 2022, our first in-person conference in over two years. Dr. Robert A. Hummer, Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris, and other members of the Add Health team will present during the conference. Team members will also be at booth #22 and ready to answer your questions and provide more information on these rich data sets. Visit PAA for the full conference schedule. We can’t wait to see you there!