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Do panel surveys make people sick? US arthritis trends in the Health and Retirement Study

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  • Wilson, Sven E.
  • Howell, Benjamin L.

Abstract

Researchers have long viewed large, longitudinal studies as essential for understanding chronic illness and generally superior to cross-sectional studies. In this study, we show that (1) age-specific arthritis prevalence in the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from the United States has risen sharply since its inception in 1992, and (2) this rise is almost surely spurious. In periods for which the data sets are comparable, we find no such increase in the cross-sectional National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the primary source for prevalence data of chronic conditions in the US. More important, the upward trend in the HRS is not internally consistent: even though prevalence in the HRS rises sharply between 1992 and 1996 for 55-56 year-olds, the prevalence for that age group plummets to its 1992 level among the new cohort added in 1998 and then rises rapidly again between 1998 and 2002. We discuss possible reasons for these discrepancies and demonstrate that they are not due to sample attrition in the HRS.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson, Sven E. & Howell, Benjamin L., 2005. "Do panel surveys make people sick? US arthritis trends in the Health and Retirement Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(11), pages 2623-2627, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:11:p:2623-2627
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    Cited by:

    1. Auspurg, Katrin & Burton, Jonathan & Cullinane, Carl & Delavande, Adeline & Laura, Fumagalli & Iacovou, Maria & Jäckle, Annette & Kaminska, Olena & Lynn, Peter & Mathews, Paul & Nicolaas, Gerry & Nic, 2013. "Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 5: results from methodological experiments," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2013-06, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. John Robert Warren & Andrew Halpern-Manners, 2012. "Panel Conditioning in Longitudinal Social Science Surveys," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 41(4), pages 491-534, November.
    3. Burton, Jonathan & Laurie, Heather & Uhrig, S.C. Noah, 2010. "Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 2: results from methodological experiments," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2010-04, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Weir, David R. & Smith, James P., 2007. "Do panel surveys really make people sick? A commentary on Wilson and Howell (60:11, 2005, 2623-2627)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 1071-1077, September.
    5. Budd, Sarah & Gilbert, Emily & Burton, Jonathan & Jäckle, Annette & Kaminska, Olena & Uhrig, S.C. Noah & Brown, Matthew & Calderwood, Lisa, 2012. "Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 4: results from methodological experiments," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2012-06, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. S. C. Noah Uhrig & Nicole Watson, 2020. "The Impact of Measurement Error on Wage Decompositions: Evidence From the British Household Panel Survey and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 49(1), pages 43-78, February.
    7. Mark Wooden & Ning Li, 2014. "Panel Conditioning and Subjective Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 235-255, May.

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