The NLSY79 provides data for understanding the health trajectories, gathering information on various aspects of physical and mental health, cognition, health insurance coverage, and linkages to external data sources like the National Death Index (NDI). This introduction outlines key health-related topics available in the dataset.

Physical health

The NLSY79 collects data on physical health, including functional limitations and self-reported general health status. Topics such as body weight, height, and health behaviors like smoking, alcohol use, and exercise are also covered. The Physical Health section includes the 40-and-over Health Module, 50-and-over Health Module, and 60-and-over Health Module tracking physical and mental health conditions as the cohort progresses through age-related milestones.

Mental health

The mental health data encompasses self-reported measures outlined in the Mental Health section, including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), some of which were collected through the 40+/50+/60+ Health Modules. These modules are further described in the Physical Health section. Furthermore, questions addressing loneliness were included in the 2022 survey.

Cognition

The NLSY79 administered the age-related 48+ Cognition Module beginning in 2006 as respondents became age-eligible. The module was repeated in subsequent rounds (2006-2016) as additional respondents reached age 48 and for those who skipped the 2006 interview. In 2018 a subset of the cognition questions were fielded, and in the 2020 survey, the 48+ Cognition Module was administered to the full sample with additional cognition questions from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Health insurance

The Health Insurance section outlines data collected on health plans/insurance as part of the "Health" section of the survey and from fringe benefit questions in the Employer Supplement.

National Death Index (NDI)

The NLSY79 incorporates data from the NDI to track mortality and cause of death among respondents. The National Death Index section lists the available NDI variables. The public release data contains a variable for whether the respondent is deceased, while the remaining NDI variables are part of the restricted-use Geocode data file. Information about applying to use restricted-use Geocode data is available on the BLS Restricted Data Access page.