The Health and Retirement Study (hrsonline.isr.umich.edu) Summer Workshop is intended to give participants an introduction to the study that will enable them to use the data for research. HRS is a large-scale longitudinal study with more than 20 years of data on the labor force participation and health transitions that individuals undergo toward the end of their work lives and in the years that follow.

Life History Data in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a 3-day online (Zoom) workshop intended to give participants an overview of the life history data resources in the HRS.

Content lectures delivered by HRS co-investigators and content area experts will cover a range of topics including a survey of the full set of life history measurement in the HRS, with a special focus on the Life History Mail Survey, which was fielded in 2015, 2017, and 2019 and obtains detailed retrospective residential, educational, occupational, and partnership histories for all HRS respondents prior to age 50. Other life history data resources that will be discussed include the Cross-Wave Childhood Health Childhood and Family Context Aggregated Data, and the Cross-Wave Marital History Aggregated Data. Presentations will also cover the contents of the restricted detailed occupational, residential, and educational information as well as administrative linkages to the life history data.

Data labs will focus on methods for using life history data and using the Gateway to Global Aging project data, which harmonizes Life History data across the international studies.

The course is designed for those with experience using HRS data or for those who have taken the introductory HRS workshop. The data training portion assumes some familiarity with SAS or STATA.