Center for Demography of Health and Aging

CDHA has developed expertise in computer security and data confidentiality, and electronic archiving. CDHA has created the Offline Longitudinal Data Repository (OLDR) to protect the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive administrative, longitudinal, biomarkers, medical records and geocoded data for users. CDHA can assist researchers to create, document, and distribute public use microdata for secondary analysis. Non-sensitive public use data archived with CDHA are currently published to the BADGIR (Better Access to Data for Global Interdisciplinary Research) site, http://nesstar.ssc.wisc.edu/index.html. BADGIR uses Nesstar Suite for publishing data and associated documentation that meets archival standards to the web. Assistance in developing customized security and confidentiality protocols for IRB review or Certificates of Confidentiality is available as is assistance in obtaining a license for restricted data traditionally housed at other institutions including the other NIA demography centers. To learn more about the process of applying to use restricted data, please see this Restricted Data at DISC page.

Secure Data Archiving (OLDR)

Any information that could be used to directly or indirectly identify a survey respondent or research subject and information that might be damaging to an individual's financial standing, employability, or reputation within the community or could reasonably lead to social stigmatization or discrimination is considered sensitive as is information concerning sexual attitudes, preferences, or practices; alcohol, drug, or other additive product use; illegal conduct; psychological wellbeing or mental health. Researchers who use or generate sensitive data on health and aging may archive these data with CDHA's Offline Longitudinal Data Repository (OLDR). Archiving with OLDR protects respondent confidentiality and data integrity, provides long-term usability of electronic data in the face of changing computer technology, promotes the development of longitudinal databases in health and aging by providing a secure archive for subject identifiers (e.g., name, phone number, address), and provides a secure environment in which to link sensitive survey and administrative data. Data and associated documentation deposited with OLDR is reviewed to ensure accuracy and integrity, so the secondary users of these data are assured of its quality. Documentation submitted to CDHA by researchers archiving with OLDR is used to create metadata (i.e., a description of the data adequate for cataloging materials and facilitating secondary analysis), to acquire legal protection for identifying or sensitive information from subpoena, and to create a data access protocol defining the conditions for data access. CDHA assumes the responsibility for creation and maintenance of a master and backup copy of all archived data and annually samples these copies in order to detect any degradation of the data or media. Sensitive data are encrypted and stored in a secure location. Data are migrated to new media as required by changing computer hardware and storage technology in order to maintain long-term usability

In order to maximize the long-term benefits of current research funding, CDHA assists researchers to create data documentation that meets archival standards established by the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and helps researchers generating sensitive data to create public use microdata. Public use data archived with CDHA are made available in our web-based public use archive (BADGIR), http://nesstar.ssc.wisc.edu/index.html. Sensitive data, on the other hand, are stored on the secure archive (OLDR). If the producer of the sensitive data wishes to allow access, CDHA will assist in setting up a sensitive data contract for this purpose.

Data Sources for Research in Aging

CDHA compiles this list of data resources to assist researchers in locating aging and health related studies and datasets. It includes cross-sectional studies, time series, and contextual data. This is a small selection of relevant studies, but the archives, government agencies and NGOs listed can help serve as a gateway to hundreds more.

CDHA Research Report Database

CDHA has built a searchable database of annotated project publications. This database is updated and expanded regularly. Search results can be saved as text or exported into Reference Manager, ProCite, and other formats.