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National Longitudinal Survey of Older and Young Men (NLSM)

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 cohort

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, Table OM3 presents information about the respondents' ages at death, and Table OM4 presents respondents' ages at the 1990 interview.

Table OM1. Older Men: Age, date of birth and date of death variables

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. Older Men: Ages of interviewed respondents by Survey Year (unweighted)
Age of R on June 30 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 Available 
Note OM2.1

 13 11 10 7 7 6 4 3 1 1 1 1

Table OM2 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.

Note OM2.1: Includes one extreme outlier (age 20 in 1966) who was interviewed in every survey year.
Table OM3. Older Men: Ages at death by race
Age at Death 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
66 114 4.2 69 45
67 116 4.3 76 40
68 130 4.8 86 44
69 133 4.9 76 57
70 119 4.4 82 37
71 136 5.1 87 49
72 114 4.2 77 37
73 117 4.3 80 37
74 92 3.4 69  
75 85 3.2 57 28
76 99 3.7 67 32
77 80 3.0 57 23
78 64 2.4 47 17
79 57 2.1 44  
80 42 1.6 34 8
81 41 1.5 32 9
82 21 <1 16 5
83 20 <1 15 5
84 2 <1 -- 2
85 1 <1 1 --
Missing 33 1.2 -- --
Total 2693 100 1786 874

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.
Table OM4. Older Men: Ages at 1990 interview by race
Age at 1990 Interview Total Percent Non-black Black
65 1 <1 1 --
66 -- -- -- --
67 -- -- -- --
68 3 <1 3 --
69 94 4.5 73 21
70 212 10.1 166 46
71 193 9.2 144 49
72 201 9.6 151 50
73 167 8.0 126 41
74 177 8.5 138 39
75 136 6.5 99 37
76 155 7.4 117 38
77 137 6.6 115 22
78 135 6.5 99 36
79 111 5.3 85 26
80 99 4.7 72 27
81 82 3.9 65 17
82 75 3.6 57 18
83 68 3.3 59 9
84 33 1.6 25 8
85 2 <1 1 1
86 1 <1 1 --
87 1 <1 -- 1
89 1 <1 -- 1
Missing 8 <1 6 2
Total 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.

Important information: Age and birth data

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.

In the 1981 survey year, there are duplicate date of birth variables for the Young Men cohort. One series, R06823., R08068., and R08069. (not depicted on the chart), includes values for individuals interviewed as well as for some who were not interviewed in 1981. It is advisable to use the series of birth date variables R07441.-R07443. for this survey year.

Young Men cohort

A variable for respondent's age, 'Age, 66,' is provided for the initial survey year based on data from the initial household screening. In addition to the 1966 screener birth date information, 'Day of R's Birth,' 'Month of R's Birth,' and 'Year of R's Birth,' birth date information was also collected during administration of the household roster section of the 1976, 1978, and 1981 questionnaires. Table YM1 lists reference numbers and sources for these variables, and Table YM2 provides the age of the respondents during each survey.

Table YM1. Young Men: Age and date of birth variables

Variable

 1966 1976 1978 1981

Date of Birth

 R00022.01-R00022.03
(Census)		 R05078.-R05080.
(HHR)		 R05640.-R05642.
(HHR)		 R07441.-R07443.
(HHR)

Age of R

 R00022. (Census) -- -- --
Table YM2. Young Men: Ages of interviewed respondents by survey year (unweighted)
Age as of June 30 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1973 1975 1976 1978 1980 1981
13 47                      
14 554 46                    
15 671 543 40                  
16 703 647 521 35                
17 595 657 598 487 36              
18 553 538 590 546 441 32            
19 427 455 434 506 486 399            
20 293 364 358 368 488 466 20          
21 302 262 316 365 393 494 389          
22 337 275 241 314 397 429 493 12        
23 354 318 257 228 334 415 533 399 9      
24 307 324 295 256 231 348 458 501 376      
25 80 286 311 290 251 236 429 524 472 8    
26   74 285 300 295 252 344 450 471 363    
27     72 267 308 289 226 418 420 446 8  
28       71 264 299 236 342 390 459 351 8
29 1       69 257 277 231 325 410 431 345
30           71 294 226 220 367 436 439
31             248 275 209 308 396 427
32             67 292 247 210 367 382
33               242 271 206 295 369
34               65 225 238 206 296
35                 60 255 201 201
36                   211 227 192
37                   57 255 228
38                     212 248
39                     53 208
40                       55
Total Interviewed 5225 4790 4318 4033 3993 3987 4014 3977 3695 3538 3438 3398
Not Interviewed/ Available 1 Note YM2.1 436 Note YM2.1 907 1192 1232 1238 1211 1248 1530 1687 1787 1827

Table YM2 is based on R00022.01-R00022.03, R05078.-R05080., R05640.-R05642., R07441., and R07442.; the most recent variables available were used. June was imputed for missing months of birth.

Note YM2.1: Includes one respondent with no birth year available; this respondent was interviewed only in 1966 and 1967.
Survey Instruments Ages and birth dates of respondents were derived from the 1966 household screener. The respondent's date of birth was collected during select years in the "Household Roster" section of the survey.