National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS)

DESCRIPTION:  The National Long Term Care Survey was designed to provide a database describing the population of chronically disabled elderly persons in the United States in terms of their health and functional status, and their patterns of use of Medicare, hospital care, home health services, and institutional care. The 1982 survey focused on the home-dwelling impaired elderly aged 65 and older. Information was collected on the number and typed of physical limitations affecting aged person, the kind and amount of help received by impaired individuals, the costs of health care services, the ability of impaired persons and their families to pay for care, and the number and characteristics of impaired individuals not receiving care. The 1984 survey not only reinterviewed the surviving 1982 home-dwelling cohort, but also interviewed for the first time the chronically impaired in the original screening file who in 1982 had been institutionalized, or who have become 65 and impaired since 1982. The 1982-1984 survey also recorded changes in the elderly population over time with respect to impairments, use of medical services and informal care, residence at home or in institutions, and mortality. The 1989 NLTCS collected longitudinal data on those elderly persons who in 1982 or 1984 had been identified as functionally impaired or institutionalized. Additionally, the 1989 Screener was used to identify other persons in the sampling frame who, although functionally unimpaired or under age 65 in 1984, had by April 1988 turned 65 and developed functional inpairments or were institutionalized for long-term care.

ORIGINATING AGENCY / PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S): 1982-1984 - United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). 1982-1989 and currently - Kenneth G. Manton

RELATED WEB SITES:
NLTCS Web Site out of Duke University Center for Demographic Studies

PRI FACULTY, AFFILIATES, AND STUDENTS: Please note that the data below came from ICPSR. Currently the 1982-1989/1989 data is "temporarily unavailable." It is also possible that these data are out of date. New data has been obtained from the Center for Demographic Studies (CDS) at Duke University. The data is public but requires a notarized data use agreement. If you are interested in obtaining accessing this data, please contact the Data Archivist.

KNOWN PROBLEMS:  The principal investigators advise that the initial version of the 1989 NLTCS has been released before final cleaning and editing in order to proved early access to the research community. The Institutional Followup questionnaire is included in the documentation, but the data will be made available in a later release, as will Medicare administrative data (this data is likely included within the CDS release).

DATA DISSEMINATED BY:
Center for Demographic Studies at Duke University
ICPSR