Description: A prospective panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The sample is nationally representative of the 13 million Mexicans born prior to 1951 (age 50 and over at baseline). The survey has national and urban/rural representation. MHAS is a sister study to the US Health and Retirement Study.
Coverage: Mexico.
Topics:
- Health measures: self-reports of conditions, symptoms, functional status, hygienic behaviors (e.g., smoking and drinking history), use/source/costs of health care services, depression, pain, reading and cognitive performance tests;
- Background: Childhood health and living conditions, education, ability to read/write and count, migration history, marital history;
- Family: rosters of all children (including deceased children); for each: demographic attributes, summary indicators of childhood and current health, education, current work status, migration. Parent and sibling migration experiences;
- Transfers: financial and time help given to and received by respondent from children, indexed to specific child; time and financial help to parent;
- Economic: sources and amounts of income, including wages, pensions, and government subsidies; type and value of assets. All non-response in amount questions were followed by bracketed amounts to reduce non-response.
- Housing environment: type, location, building materials, other indicators of quality, and ownership of consumer durables;
- Anthropometric: interviewers measured weight, height; waist, hip, and calf circumference, knee length, and timed one-leg stands for a random subsample (20%) of the respondents.
Age Range of Sample: 50 and over
Sample Size:
15,186
Years of data collection: 2001 and 2003
Data & Documentation Links:
http://www.mhas.pop.upenn.edu/english/documents_avdoc.htm