The study was a collaborative effort among researchers from the Universities of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Wisconsin in the U.S., and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática (INEGI, Mexico).
The overall goal of the study is to examine the aging process and its disease and disability burden in a large representative panel of older Mexicans from a wide socioeconomic spectrum.
The MHAS includes a nationally representative sample of Mexicans 50 years and older and their spouses of partners regardless of age, and used protocols and survey instruments that are highly comparable to the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
The sample for the MHAS baseline was selected from residents of both rural and urban areas, from the National Employment survey (Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, ENE), carried out by the INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia) in Mexico; 11,000 households with at least one resident of age 50 or older were eligible to be part of the MHAS baseline sample.
Also new to the third wave of the study was the collection of a blood sample for biomarkers from a sub-sample (n=2,089) and questions on the occurrence of major life events of the respondents.
Databases and study documents can be accessed from the website and include: • Questionnaires • Interviewer and Coder Manuals • Codebooks with variable codes and frequencies • Follow-up master file to link study subjects through the three waves • Fieldwork reports: duration of interviews, response rates The website also features a searchable database of publications using MHAS data and a discussion forum available to all users.
All non-response in amount questions were followed by bracketed amounts to reduce non-response; Housing Environment: Type, location, building materials, other indicators of quality, and ownership of consumer durables; Anthropometric: Interviewers measured weight, height; waist, hip, and calf circumference, knee length, and timed one-leg stands for a random subsample (20%) of respondents.
Published papers have appeared in diverse peer reviewed journals of multiple disciplines related to aging and health, both in the U.S. and abroad.