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Add Health is pleased to announce the release and public download availability of Wave V Public-Use Biomarker Data. 

Wave V Demographics – Home Exam
This file contains various demographic variables in regards to the Wave V Home Exam, including the date of the home exam, number of days between the Wave V survey and the home exam, the home exam completion status, as well as the respondent’s age, biological sex, pregnancy status, medication use, and blood draw status. N=1,839

Wave V Anthropometrics
This file contains anthropometric variables constructed from the measurements taken at the Wave V Home Exam. The measurements include arm circumference, height, weight, and waist circumference. The file also contains BMI, as well as classification variables for BMI and waist circumference. N=1,839

Wave V Medications – Home Exam
This file provides the therapeutic classification codes, as well as numerous medication flag variables, to identify the types of medications taken by respondents for medications (both prescription and over-the-counter) reported at the Wave V Home Exam. N=3,883

Wave V Cardiovascular Measures
This file contains cardiovascular measures constructed from the three serial measurements of blood pressure and pulse rate collected at the Wave V Home Exam. The measures include systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure. Other variables included in the file are two classifications of blood pressure, flags based on self-reported medical history, an antihypertensive medication flag, and a joint classification variable. N=1,839

Wave V Lipids
This file contains constructed measures designed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of lipids results based on venous blood collected via phlebotomy at the Wave V Home Exam. In addition to the lipid assay results, there are classifications according to both the NCEP/ATP III and AHA/ACC guidelines, a flag for antihyperlipidemic medication use, and two hyperlipidemia joint classification variables. N=1,839

Wave V Glucose Homeostasis
This file contains assay results of glucose and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) based on venous blood collected via phlebotomy at the Wave V Home Exam. There are classifications for fasting glucose and non-fasting glucose, as well as HbA1C classification. Other variables included are flags based on a self-reported diabetes medical history, anti-diabetic medication use, and a diabetes joint classification variable. N=1,839

Wave V Inflammation and Immune Function
This file contains constructed measures designed to facilitate analysis and interpretation of inflammation and immune function based on venous blood collected via phlebotomy at the Wave V Home Exam. In addition to the assay results for high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), there is an AHA/CDC classification, counts of subclinical symptoms and common infectious or inflammatory diseases, and various anti-inflammatory medication use flags. N=1,839

Wave V Renal Function
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. Assay results for creatinine and cystatin-c are available, as well as three different estimations of the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) using either the creatine concentration, the cystatin C concentration, or both concentrations. Classifications according to both clinical and KDIGO guidelines are available as well. N=1,839

For more information regarding Wave V Public-Use Data or to download the data, please visit the CPC Data Portal. 

Add Health is pleased to announce the dates of the 2022 Add Health Users Conference. Join us Monday, July 11, and Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Connect with other Add Health users and learn more about these rich data sets.

Registration is now open. The preliminary agenda will be available in late spring. For conference updates and additional details, including hotel accommodations, visit the conference website.

Add Health is currently accepting abstracts. Submissions are due by Monday, March 21, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Abstracts may be submitted through the abstract form located on the conference website. For more information and suggested topics, view the full Call for Papers.

Add Health is pleased to announce that the Wave V Public-Use data has been released is now available to download. 

Wave V Public-Use Data is a smaller sample of the Wave V Mixed-Mode Survey Data. This sample, like the other waves of public-use data, consists of one-half of the core sample and one-half of the oversample of African-American adolescents with a parent who has a college degree, chosen at random. N=4,196.

For more information regarding the Wave V Public-Use data or to download the data, please visit the CPC Data Portal. 

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

We are excited to announce that the Add Health Navigator is now live!

Add Health Navigator is Add Health’s Colectica portal that provides the ability to search codebooks, view wave to wave variable comparison and create custom codebooks for your research. 

To access the Add Health Navigator, please visit the Documentation page of the Add Health website.  

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

Polygenic Index Inventories

Polygenic scores computed by the SSGAC consortium for anthropometric traits, cognition/education, fertility/sexual development, health/health behaviors, and personality/well being. N=5,689

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. 

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

Wave I State Demographic Characteristics, Exclusionary Indices, and Inclusionary Indices

These data provide measures of punishment regime variation in state-based policies, practices, and programs, both in their punitive and non-punitive forms and some additional state demographic control variables. These data were gathered to use with Add Health for multilevel analyses. N=20,745.

Contextual Wave IV Database

The data provide an important update to the contextual variables already available in Wave IV by including information at the state- and county levels. Additionally, there are a few new variables in the present database that are absent from other waves. N=15,701.

Contextual Wave V Database

This contextual database further expands the extensive contextual data currently available to users of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) through the provision of numerous measures reported by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), rural-urban commuting area codes, U.S. Climate Atlas, and Uniform Crime Report. N=12,300.

Wave V County Health and Mobility Data Documentation

The Wave V County Health and Mobility database summarize the socioeconomic, health, and mobility characteristics of the environments in which Add Health participants were living at the time of their Wave V interview. County-level data describe (1) levels of and trends in chronic disease (hypertension, type-2 diabetes) and health risk behaviors (obesity, smoking, alcohol use); and (2) economic opportunity and inequality. N=12,300.

Wave V – ACA Medicaid Expansion Data

This data file provides the year in which states expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. These dates are attached to the location in which Add Health participants were living at Wave V. N=2,300.

Waves I, IV, and V – The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility Data

This file enhances the existing Add Health contextual database through the addition of measures essential to understanding the determinants and sequelae of socioeconomic mobility. Specifically, it aims to characterize the socioeconomic mobility of Add Health participants at Wave I, IV, and V. WI N=20,745, WIV N=15,701, WV N=12,300.

Wave IV City Crime Rate Data

This Crime Rate Data file facilitates research examining the impact of community violence on the health trajectories of Wave IV Add Health participants by providing police department crime data from 13 U.S. cities with high crime rates. N=15,701.

Wave V City Crime Rate Data

This Crime Rate Data file facilitates research examining the impact of community violence on the health trajectories of Wave V Add Health participants by providing police department crime data from 13 U.S. cities with high crime rates. N=12,300.

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

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

Registration is now open for the 2021 Add Health Virtual Workshop.

Join us on Monday, July 26, 2021, from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM for a plenary session followed by 4 concurrent presentations. Connect with other Add Health users and learn how these rich data sets have impacted the research community and enhance our knowledge of health over the life course.  In addition to the virtual presentations, a Q&A with team members will be available.

The workshop is free to attend but registration is required. Registration is available here. The first registrants will receive a complimentary travel mug from Add Health. Quantities are limited and available while supplies last. Registration will close on July 1, 2021.

We hope to see you at the workshop!

Add Health is excited to announce our upcoming 2021 Virtual Workshop this July. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we were forced to cancel the in-person 2020 Add Health Users Conference at NIH, so we are happy to present this workshop as an alternative to the traditional conference.

The workshop will take place on July 26, 2021, from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM.  The afternoon will consist of a series of methodology sessions, beginning with a plenary session followed by 3 concurrent sessions. In addition to the virtual presentations, a Q&A with team members and networking opportunities will be available. The workshop is free to attend, agenda and registration information will be posted soon.

Join us this summer and connect with other Add Health users and learn how these rich data sets have impacted the research community and enhance our knowledge of health over the life course. 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carolina Population Center has received two grants, providing an expected $38.2 million over 5 years, that together will fund Wave VI of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Now entering its 28^th year of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, Add Health is the largest, most comprehensive, nationally representative and longitudinal study of the health of adolescents who have now aged into adulthood ever undertaken in the United States. 

The new grants, funded primarily by the National Institute on Aging with co-funding from five other NIH institutes and offices, will enable researchers to follow the original adolescent cohort into their 40s with a sixth wave of data collection and dissemination. This 5-year project will focus on the cognitive, mental, and physical health of Add Health participants, with particular attention given to disparities in health across racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender subgroups of the population.

Allison Aiello, the new Deputy Director of Add Health and a Professor of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health notes, “Research on the early signs and symptoms of health conditions that usually manifest in older age, such as cognitive impairment, age-related loss of physical functioning, and dementia, are rarely studied in early midlife, particularly at the national level. The new measures of cognitive and physical functioning in Wave VI will provide an opportunity for researchers to study the accumulation of risk or preventative factors for later-life health, decades before conditions emerge in older age. These measures may provide new insights on ways to slow down or prevent age-related conditions.”

Since 1994, Add Health has provided the data for more than 3,500 scientific papers in the social, health, policy, and medical sciences. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents’ social, economic, psychological and physical well-being with contextual data on their family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships, thus providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviors are linked to health and socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood.

Among many of the papers published to date, foundational studies based on Add Health data have helped document how the obesity epidemic has unfolded in the United States, brought the silent epidemic of largely undetected high blood pressure in young adults into public awareness, and pioneered work on how the social environment interacts with genetic markers to influence behavior and health in adulthood. Add Health data have also been instrumental in helping the scientific community better understand health disparities across subgroups of the U.S. population. The new wave of data will inform current trends, including rising health risks in middle-age and participants’ exposure to COVID-19.

A new wave begins

Starting in 2021, the five-year project will collect a new sixth round of social and biological data from as many of the original 20,000+ respondents as possible, who live in all 50 states, when they are in their mid-40s. Together with existing Add Health data collected over the past 25+ years, the scientific community will be able to investigate an invaluable longitudinal record of the Add Health cohort through the fifth decade of life.

The study’s new director, Robert Hummer, is the Howard W. Odum Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Sociology. Professor Kathleen Mullan Harris, the James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, who served as the director of Add Health from 2004 to 2021, stated that “the new wave of data collection will advance knowledge for how early life—during adolescence and young adulthood—matters for health and well-being in midlife, and will provide substantial additional payoff for the huge investment that NIH has made in Add Health over the past 25+ years.”

Dr. Harris will continue to serve as one of the study’s research investigators for the next five years.

The new funding from NIA and other NIH institutes and offices will also allow researchers to better understand how adolescent experiences and environments help shape the health and social experiences of individuals as they move into the middle adult years and beyond.

A team effort to create data

The team of Add Health researchers includes sociologists, psychologists, epidemiologists, geneticists, physicians, and research methodologists. They work in collaboration with each other to design the study, collect the data, and make the data available to thousands of researchers all over the world.

Add Health Director Robert Hummer noted that the team of staff members, postdoctoral researchers, and students who work on the study are dedicated to producing data that will create new scientific knowledge about the health of our society.

“It’s extremely unique that scientists across such a breadth of disciplines all collaborate together on Add Health,” he said. “The Carolina Population Center has created an environment for such ‘team science’ to thrive.”

The Add Health team based at the Carolina Population Center at UNC will work in close collaboration with their 20,000+ participants, as well as study collaborators at RTI International, the University of Vermont, and Exam One, in addition to their funders at the NIH.

“Add Health has evolved because of a trusted, lengthy partnership between researchers, participants, and funders,” says Hummer. “It’s really astounding how this ground-up effort has evolved over many decades, and continues to impact the way we understand human health and health disparities in the United States.”

The awards are supported by NIH grants U01AG071448 and U01AG071450. U01AG071450 is co-funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), and the NIH/OD Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) as well as the NIH/OD Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR).

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

HUD-Assisted Housing Supplemental Data.

The supplementary data-file identifies Add Health respondents who lived in HUD-assisted housing at any point between 1995 and 2017. For these Add Health respondents, the supplementary data-file provides unique Add Health respondent identifiers (AID) and household-level information about the characteristics of their HUD housing residence. The supplementary data-file is a hierarchical (i.e., long-format data file), with each row representing a unique HUD administrative record that is linked to an AID. In total, the hierarchical file includes a total of 8,587 HUD records on 1,159 unique Add Health respondents identified through the linkage. N=8,587

This data-file has special requirements for access, please see requirements 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.