Accessing longitudinal data via the UK Data Archive / ESDS

Jack KneeshawNCDS summer school course, July 2005

ESDS Longitudinal

Economic and Social Data Service

• new national data archiving and dissemination service

• provides access and support for key economic and social data

• distributed service, bringing together centres of expertise in data creation, dissemination, preservation and use

• provides seamless and easier access to a range of disparate resources for UK Higher and Further Education sectors

• core archiving services plus four specialist data services

ESDS Longitudinal

Joint enterprise:

• UK Data Archive (UKDA)• UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC)

based at ISER

• supports a range of longitudinal data collections but five ‘core’ collections in particular:

• 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) • British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) • Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) • National Child Development Study (NCDS)• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

National Child Development Survey (NCDS)

• cohort born in a single week in 1958

• data collected at birth, plus ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42

• invaluable resource for investigating social mobility and the impact on later life of childhood conditions

• coverage includes a wide range of social, economic, health and psychological issues

1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

• cohort of all people born in a single week in 1970

• data collected around birth, and at ages 5, 10, 16, 26 and most recently at age 30

• design and coverage is similar to NCDS – the latest sweeps used a common questionnaire

• provides important opportunities for inter-cohort comparison

Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)

• the latest of the birth cohort studies, focusing on children born in 2000 and 2001

• first sweep of data collected when children were aged 9 months

• second sweep collected data when the children reached 3 years

• the MCS will make a major contribution to understanding children and families in the UK

British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

• the BHPS is collected and deposited by the ULSC at Essex

• follows the members of 5500 households first sampled in 1991

• interviews conducted annually

• become a major resource for understanding the dynamics of British households

• coverage includes:– income, labour market behaviour, social and political

values, health, education, housing and household organisation

• recently large new samples were introduced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

• study of English population aged 50+, following 12,000 respondents through ageing process

• first study in the UK to connect the full range of topics necessary to understand the economic, social, psychological and health elements of the ageing process

• follow-ups every two years to see how people’s health, economic and social circumstances change

• study design allows researchers to track lifecourse from pre-retirement through to death

• sample selected from 1998, 1999 and 2001 HSE surveys which will allow ELSA data to be matched to respondent’s health data prior to first interview

ESDS Longitudinal Demo

Data Deposit, Processing, Retrieval and Access

The data themselves - NCDS

The data themselves – BCS70

Data not held at the UKDA

• some additional data, derived from further minor data collections, data cleaning etc., only available via CLS at present

• these data are added to the UKDA collection from time to time

Ensuring confidentiality

• cohort members promised confidentiality

• datasets deposited with UKDA are fully anonymised

• datasets go through further process of checking at the UKDA

• UKDA users undertake not to identify individuals

Documentation

A variety of NCDS/BCS70 documentation is available, including:

• guides to datasets• lists of publications• annotated questionnaires• interactive data dictionaries• ‘Data Notes’ series• other survey-related documentation, inc. working

papers etc.

Available both from CLS and UKDA web sites.

Retrieval and Access

• web access, via UKDA site, to data and metadata

• documentation (codebooks, questionnaires) freely available to any UKDA user (registered or unregistered)

• data can be browsed and frequencies run by any user (registered or unregistered) using Nesstar

• full datasets are freely available for download for the majority of our registered users

• data supplied in a variety of formats– SPSS – STATA– tab-delimited text

Online access for unregistered users

• UKDA web pages - easy to navigate format– ‘Search catalogue’ facility– subject browsing - e.g. major series – HASSET thesaurus– access to online doc - pdf user guides and

questionnaires

• Nesstar– browse data and metadata for a selection

of data, inc. NCDS and BCS70 – run frequencies

Unregistered users demo

Online access for registered users

Registered users can:

• download full datasets

• order data via online order system

• browse/analyse/download data in Nesstar

To register:

• obtain an Athens ID

• sign and return data access agreement (legal undertaking)

• (to access data) register a usage (formerly a project)

Registered users demo, inc. Nesstar

ESDS Longitudinal

+44 (0)1206 872143www.esds.ac.uk/longitudinal

www.data-archive.ac.uknesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview/index.jsp

help@esds.ac.uk