The LSOA II Wave 3 Decedent Interview

Survey Description

The second followup interview conducted with the LSOA II sample is known as the LSOA II Wave 3 interview. Similar to the procedures employed at Wave 2, the basic design of Wave 3 consisted of tracing sample persons to a current address and conducting a final followup interview with the subjects or their proxies. Data collection for Wave 3 took place between June 9, 1999, and August 30, 2000, with the majority of interviews conducted between June 1999 and July 2000.

Most of the survey design features and methodologies of the LSOA II Wave 2 interview were maintained during the Wave 3 effort, including:

• Wave 3 interviews were conducted primarily via Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI).
• In some instances, self-administered questionnaires (SAQs) were also utilized.
• Survivor and Decedent questionnaires were developed and retained most of the content of Wave 2.
• Rules for administering both Survivor and Decedent CATI and SAQ questionnaires were unchanged between Waves 2 and 3.
• Data collection was performed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Response Rates

The LSOA II sample contains 9,447 persons. The eligible Wave 3 sample consisted of 8,478 persons. A total of 7,936 (93.6 percent) were successfully traced and located to a current address at the time of the Wave 3 interview. Of these, 6,465 were interviewed resulting in a Wave 3 interview rate of 81.5 percent conditional on successful tracing (6,465/7,936).

The overall Wave 3 response rate is the number of completed interviews (6,465) divided by the total sample (9,447) or 68.4 percent.

The overall LSOA II rate at Wave 3 is derived by multiplying the LSOA II at Wave 2 rate (74.0) by the Wave 3 interview rate of 68.4 = 50.6 percent.

Of the 6,465 interviews conducted at Wave 3, 5,559 were survivor interviews and 906 were decedent interviews.

Data File Contents

The LSOA II Wave 3 Decedent data file contains information from the following:

• the 1994 National Health Interview Survey core questionnaire, and
• the 1999-2000 LSOA II Wave 3 Decedent interview.

As mentioned above, the content of the Wave 3 questionnaires varied little from those used at Wave 2. Major sections of the Wave 3 Decedent questionnaire include:

• housing, migration, and long-term care
• family structure, relationships, and living arrangementsphysical functioning
• conditions and impairments
• health opinions
• cognitive functioning
• health care utilization
• health insurance

Data Availability

The current version of the LSOA II Wave 3 Decedent Interview File is DF 2.1 (a Web-only version), released to the public in December 2002. The data file and accompanying documentation are available to users only through this Web site. The following files may be accessed:

• ASCII version of the LSOA II Wave 3 Decedent Data File (records=909; vars=569; lrecl=1,137; approximately 1 mb)
• ASCII file containing a SAS read-in program with input, label, value, and length statements
• PDF version of the codebook containing an overview of the survey design, methodology, and content, as well as data file specifications and variable frequencies
• PDF versions of the questionnaires used in the Wave 3 Decedent questionnaires (both CATI and Self-Administered Questionnaire versions).

Related Reports and the LSOA II Wave 2 Survivor Questionnaires

To date, no detailed description of the LSOA II has been published. However, all LSOA II codebooks contain comprehensive overviews of the sample design and survey methodology. These codebooks and the survey instruments can be accessed from the file-specific sites listed above.