CHARLS - sporedata/researchdesigneR GitHub Wiki

General description

CHARLS is a longitudinal dataset of persons in China aged 45 years or older and their spouses.

Variable categories

• Sociodemographic and economic information;
• Physical functioning (Activities of Daily Living - ADL, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living - IADL, mobility);
• Overall self-report of health and mental state (self-reported health, cognition/memory, depression, sleep, loneliness);
• Health examinations: measured blood pressure;
• Physical and mental performance tests (normal-pace walking test, grip strength, cognition/memory tests);
• Risk factors (body mass index - BMI, tobacco consumption, alcohol consumption, physical activity);
• Chronic conditions (self-reported chronic conditions, disease treatment).

This dataset was harmonized through SAGE. Variables list: here.

Limitations

• When compared to SAGE, CHARLS only assesses five ADLs (missing: walking across a room) and five IADL (missing: using a map to figure out how to get around in a strange place, and making telephone calls) variables. CHARLS also only has seven out of the 10 mobility variables.

Related publications

• Data Resource Profile: Cross-national and cross-study sociodemographic and health-related harmonized domains from SAGE plus CHARLS, ELSA, HRS, LASI, and SHARE (SAGE1 Wave 2)

SporeData-specific

• templates