The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) is a longitudinal survey being conducted by the

China Center for Economic Research The China Center for Economic Research (CCER) is an economics think tank in Peking University, China. It was opened in August 1994, and is directed by Justin Yifu Lin Justin Yifu Lin ( zh, c=林毅夫, p=Lín Yìfū; born on October 15, 1952 ...

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

with Professor Yaohui Zhao of Peking University serving as Principal Investigator and Professor
John Strauss
of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

and Albert Park of

HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (HKUST IEMS) is a university-level institute under thOffice of the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studiesof The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). It is launched on May 27 ...

serving as co-Principal Investigators.

Goals

The survey will collect a

representative sample In this statistics, quality assurance, and survey methodology, sampling is the selection of a subset or a statistical sample (termed sample for short) of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole ...

of Chinese 45 and older every two years to enable multidisciplinary studies on issues related to

population ageing Population ageing is an overall change in the ages of a population. This can typically be summarised in a single parameter as an increase in the median age. Causes are a long-term decline in fertility rates and a decline in mortality rates. Most ...

. China is one of the fastest ageing countries in the world and accounts for a large fraction of the growth in the world's old. By 2050, China's elderly (65 and older) population share is expected to reach 30%.

Funding

The pilot survey is funded by the

National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand ...

, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, and Natural Science Foundation of China.

Data Collection

The questionnaire contains information on household

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...

, transfers among family members, health status, health care, employment, income, consumption and

assets In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...

, as well as information on health facilities of the community and government policies in local areas. The CHARLS is designed on the models of health and retirement studies originated from the

Health and Retirement Study The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of Americans over age 50 conducted by the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor ...

(HRS) in the U.S., but has the advantage of including information on the community the respondent resides and local policies. Due to large internal variations of government policies, the data will enable analyses of policy impacts in the process of population ageing. Other countries participating in this international network of ageing studies include

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, fifteen countries in continental

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Initial Results

The pilot survey was conducted in two provinces (

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

and

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

) in 2008 and collected data on roughly 1,600 households. The pilot data of 2008 has been released to the research community since April 30, 2009. The national baseline survey is being planned for 2011. CHARLS data will be available for download by researchers at no cost.

Sister studies

* The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) *

English Longitudinal Study of Ageing The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is a longitudinal study that collects multidisciplinary data from a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older to look at all aspects of aging in England. The study started in ...

(ELSA) * The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing
(KLoSA)

External links

China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

Contact Page - Zhao Yaohui

Contact Page - John Strauss

Albert Park

Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE)

References

{{Health in the People's Republic of China Health in China Gerontology Retirement