Age
Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
Age
Both the Older and Young Men data sets include information on the respondent's age as of the initial survey year and date of birth. The initial survey year age variables were provided by the Census Bureau based on information collected during the 1966 household screening. As age inconsistencies were discovered, Census made date of birth information available in the late 1970s. Date of birth and age data were also collected in later surveys during fielding of the "Household Roster" (HHR) section of the questionnaire. Data for reported age and birth dates include a small number of inconsistencies; therefore, attempts to restrict the universe according to age-related variables may have an unwanted result. The cohort-specific User Notes at the end of this section discuss some of the idiosyncratic aspects of these variables.
In addition to the respondent-specific variables discussed in this section, the date of birth and/or age variables for other household members are also available; see the Household Composition section for more information.
Older Men
The Older Men data set contains a respondent age variable ('Age, 66') for the initial survey year and two date of birth variables, i.e., 'Day of R's Birth,' 'Month of R's Birth,' and 'Year of R's Birth' for 1966 and a month and year variable for the 1981 survey year. Age at death was calculated by Census at the time of the 1990 interview for 2,660 respondents; data were derived from Census records and month/day/year of death information collected from the widows of respondents. Table OM1 lists reference numbers and source information for these Older Men variables. Table OM2 provides the age of the respondents during the 1966-83 surveys, and Table OM3 presents information about the respondents' ages at death or the 1990 interview.
Table OM1. Age, Date of Birth & Date of Death Variables: Older Men
| Variable | 1966 | 1981 | 1990 |
| Date of Birth of R | R00022.01-R00022.03 (Census) |
R05051.-R05052. (HHR) |
-- |
| Age of R | R00022. (Census) | -- | -- |
| Age of R at Death | -- | -- | R07075.-R07077. (Census) |
Table OM2. Ages of Interviewed Respondents by Survey Year (Unweighted): Older Men
| Age of R on June 30 | Survey Year | |||||||||||
| 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1971 | 1973 | 1975 | 1976 | 1978 | 1980 | 1981 | 1983 | |
| 39 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 40 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 41 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 42 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 43 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 44 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 45 | 278 | 7 | 1 | |||||||||
| 46 | 386 | 266 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 47 | 374 | 364 | 260 | 6 | ||||||||
| 48 | 349 | 346 | 359 | 255 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 49 | 356 | 331 | 346 | 334 | 7 | |||||||
| 50 | 355 | 325 | 325 | 325 | 247 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 51 | 355 | 338 | 315 | 310 | 328 | 7 | 1 | |||||
| 52 | 346 | 338 | 337 | 298 | 313 | 238 | 1 | |||||
| 53 | 346 | 324 | 336 | 322 | 298 | 316 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 54 | 316 | 334 | 322 | 319 | 289 | 304 | 232 | 5 | ||||
| 55 | 326 | 301 | 326 | 308 | 301 | 282 | 293 | 210 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 56 | 309 | 306 | 292 | 308 | 309 | 277 | 285 | 280 | 6 | 1 | ||
| 57 | 277 | 293 | 293 | 274 | 291 | 288 | 277 | 277 | 198 | 1 | ||
| 58 | 270 | 263 | 282 | 277 | 296 | 284 | 260 | 261 | 264 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | 275 | 261 | 259 | 263 | 263 | 275 | 281 | 246 | 253 | 190 | 6 | |
| 60 | 65 | 259 | 254 | 236 | 253 | 278 | 266 | 260 | 245 | 250 | 185 | 1 |
| 61 | 7 | 61 | 248 | 239 | 247 | 246 | 262 | 247 | 232 | 239 | 231 | 6 |
| 62 | 2 | 7 | 60 | 227 | 231 | 241 | 262 | 246 | 240 | 237 | 237 | 174 |
| 63 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 57 | 218 | 231 | 235 | 241 | 229 | 219 | 227 | 223 |
| 64 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 208 | 212 | 229 | 221 | 223 | 225 | 204 | 233 | |
| 65 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 52 | 205 | 211 | 218 | 226 | 217 | 211 | 221 | |
| 66 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 196 | 199 | 190 | 203 | 203 | 205 | 188 | ||
| 67 | 2 | 2 | 48 | 193 | 181 | 202 | 209 | 189 | 199 | |||
| 68 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 176 | 181 | 172 | 188 | 193 | 182 | |||
| 69 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 162 | 165 | 190 | 175 | 180 | ||||
| 70 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 43 | 167 | 154 | 183 | 179 | ||||
| 71 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 144 | 149 | 140 | 160 | |||||
| 72 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 37 | 148 | 142 | 165 | |||||
| 73 | 2 | 5 | 128 | 138 | 127 | |||||||
| 74 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 35 | 120 | 132 | ||||||
| 75 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 32 | 123 | |||||||
| 76 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 98 | ||||||||
| 77 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 30 | ||||||||
| 78 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| 79 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 80 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 82 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Total Interviewed | 5020 | 4744 | 4648 | 4381 | 4175 | 3951 | 3732 | 3487 | 3219 | 3001 | 2832 | 2633 |
| Not Interviewed | -- | 276 | 372 | 639 | 845 | 1069 | 1288 | 1533 | 1801 | 2019 | 2188 | 2387 |
| Not Available1 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Note: This table is based on R00022.01-R00022.03, R05051., and R05052.; the 1981 date of birth variables were used when available. June was imputed for missing months of birth; respondents with missing birth years are in the "not available" category. | ||||||||||||
| 1 Includes one extreme outlier (age 20 in 1966) who was interviewed in every survey year. | ||||||||||||
Table OM3. Ages at Death & at Interview by Race (Unweighted): 1990 Older Men
| Age | Age at Death | Age at 1990 Interview | |||||||
| Total | Percent | Non-black | Black | Total | Percent | Non-black | Black | ||
| 47 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 48 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||||
| 49 | 19 | 1 | 10 | 9 | |||||
| 50 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 4 | |||||
| 51 | 24 | 1 | 14 | 10 | |||||
| 52 | 30 | 1.1 | 21 | 9 | |||||
| 53 | 30 | 1.1 | 23 | 7 | |||||
| 54 | 44 | 1.6 | 29 | 15 | |||||
| 55 | 45 | 1.7 | 27 | 18 | |||||
| 56 | 64 | 2.4 | 44 | 20 | |||||
| 57 | 65 | 2.4 | 45 | 20 | |||||
| 58 | 73 | 2.7 | 46 | 27 | |||||
| 59 | 78 | 2.9 | 48 | 30 | |||||
| 60 | 92 | 3.4 | 59 | 33 | |||||
| 61 | 89 | 3.3 | 61 | 28 | |||||
| 62 | 104 | 3.9 | 71 | 33 | |||||
| 63 | 91 | 3.4 | 57 | 34 | |||||
| 64 | 109 | 4.0 | 75 | 34 | |||||
| 65 | 100 | 3.7 | 75 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- | |
| 66 | 114 | 4.2 | 69 | 45 | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
| 67 | 116 | 4.3 | 76 | 40 | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
| 68 | 130 | 4.8 | 86 | 44 | 3 | 1 | 3 | -- | |
| 69 | 133 | 4.9 | 76 | 57 | 94 | 4.5 | 73 | 21 | |
| 70 | 119 | 4.4 | 82 | 37 | 212 | 10.1 | 166 | 46 | |
| 71 | 136 | 5.1 | 87 | 49 | 193 | 9.2 | 144 | 49 | |
| 72 | 114 | 4.2 | 77 | 37 | 201 | 9.6 | 151 | 50 | |
| 73 | 117 | 4.3 | 80 | 37 | 167 | 8.0 | 126 | 41 | |
| 74 | 92 | 3.4 | 69 | 23 | 177 | 8.5 | 138 | 39 | |
| 75 | 85 | 3.2 | 57 | 28 | 136 | 6.5 | 99 | 37 | |
| 76 | 99 | 3.7 | 67 | 32 | 155 | 7.4 | 117 | 38 | |
| 77 | 80 | 3.0 | 57 | 23 | 137 | 6.6 | 115 | 22 | |
| 78 | 64 | 2.4 | 47 | 17 | 135 | 6.5 | 99 | 36 | |
| 79 | 57 | 2.1 | 44 | 13 | 111 | 5.3 | 85 | 26 | |
| 80 | 42 | 1.6 | 34 | 8 | 99 | 4.7 | 72 | 27 | |
| 81 | 41 | 1.5 | 32 | 9 | 82 | 3.9 | 65 | 17 | |
| 82 | 21 | 1 | 16 | 5 | 75 | 3.6 | 57 | 18 | |
| 83 | 20 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 68 | 3.3 | 59 | 9 | |
| 84 | 2 | 1 | -- | 2 | 33 | 1.6 | 25 | 8 | |
| 85 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 86 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- | |
| 87 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | -- | 1 | |
| 89 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | -- | 1 | |
| Missing | 33 | 1.2 | -- | -- | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | |
| Total | 2693 | 100 | 1786 | 874 | 2092 | 100 | 1603 | 489 | |
| Note: Age at death based on R07075. Age at 1990 interview date based on R00022.01-R00022.03, R05051. and R05052., and R06010.-R06012. The 1981 date of birth variables were used when available; missing birth months were imputed to June and missing birth days were imputed to 15. Missing 1990 interview dates were not imputed. | |||||||||
| 1 Less than one percent. | |||||||||
User Notes
The user is encouraged to carefully examine all age and birth date variables when performing any age-related analysis. Birth data collected at the time of screening may have been provided by a family member, giving rise to possible inconsistencies when comparing a respondent's reported age with age calculated from date of birth. In cases where age was unknown, interviewers were directed to obtain a "best estimate" of a respondent's "exact age" at the time of screening and to make corrections later if possible. Furthermore, a respondent may be inconsistent in different interviews in reporting his age. The date of birth inconsistencies are documented in the codebook. Birth date corrections were made in 1981. The birth date corrections should be used carefully and the user is advised to make any additional corrections on a case-by-case basis.
There are varying numbers of out-of-scope cases in the Original Cohorts for two reasons: (1) the birth date variables in a handful of cases are inconsistent with the stated age of the respondent, and (2) some borderline cases that may actually be in scope for the calendar year of the survey are not necessarily in scope at the time the interview took place. CHRR has investigated causes of birth date inconsistencies and has discovered that they arise from birth data originally provided by Census. Unfortunately, these data are generally not recoverable since many of the affected respondents have since attrited. An additional difficulty is that the date of birth for some cases is not reported.
It may be to the user's advantage to calculate his or her own variable for age based on the reported date of birth. When birth date variables are either unavailable or out of scope, the user may wish to investigate other age-related variables in order to establish age.
There are several cases in the Older Men database that are more than one year out of scope when age is calculated from date of birth. Although date of birth was asked again during the 1981 survey, those particular out of scope cases were not surveyed in that year. The user should consult the codebook for case identification codes; other age-related variables may be investigated in order to decide whether to include a particular case in an analysis. In addition, there are 12 cases in the initial survey year with missing birth dates so that an attempt to create an age based on date of birth will result, depending on the algorithm used, in missing or possibly even erroneous ages.
Survey Instruments: Ages and birth dates of respondents were derived from the 1966 household screener. Respondent's date of birth was collected during select years in the "Household Roster" section of the survey.