Biomeasure and Environmental Data Collection

NORC has broad capacity in the collection of non-interview data for varied purposes, including the collection of medical records and academic transcripts, the creation of observational protocols, and the gathering of biological samples or biomeasures, and environmental samples.

Biomeasure Collection

NORC has extensive experience managing and collecting a variety of biomeasures. Specifically, NORC has developed innovative strategies to use field interviewers to collect biomeasures, thereby creating biomeasure collection protocols that are innovative, minimally invasive, reliable, and practical for a home-based survey. Biomeasure collection experience includes a variety of measures, all of which were collected by NORC field interviewers: anthropometrics, sensory function, biological samples (including dried blood spots, whole saliva, urine, vaginal swabs, and DNA), and measures of physical function. In addition to biomeasures collected by field interviewers, NORC also has experience hiring, coordinating, and scheduling respondent appointments with lab examiners and medical centers.

Representative Projects

Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity in the United States. This project proposes to investigate why some people manage to survive to extreme old age (100+ years) and what are the biological and social correlates of exceptional longevity. These are important issues not only for demographic forecasts of human mortality and population aging, and the policy implications on health-care and pension expenditures, but also for improving our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of human aging and longevity. The project proposes to explore the effects of early-life living conditions, adult physical characteristics, marriage, and reproductive history on exceptional longevity, and will test a number of related biomedical and social hypotheses.  The project is designed as an interdisciplinary study of exceptional human longevity. To contribute to the research infrastructure for subsequent longevity studies world-wide, a database with integrated, matched information on longevity predictor variables will be developed, and made available to the research community on the Internet. More

Integrated Research in Health and Aging: Early Results from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) Wave 2. NORC's Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging was awarded a grant from National Institute of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) to host a two day conference that will emphasize formal and informal discussion on innovative uses of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) Wave 2 data. More

National Children's Study (NCS). The National Children’s Study will examine the effects of the environment, as broadly defined to include factors such as air, water, diet, sound, family dynamics, community and cultural influences, and genetics on the growth, development, and health of children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21 years. More

National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). The National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) is a population-based study of health and social factors on a national scale, aiming to understand the well-being of older, community-dwelling Americans. More

Headlines

News The Republic: "Predicting number of very old is confounding" with research from Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity in the United States More
Posted: 3.15.2012 4:19PM
News The Wall Street Journal: NORC's Natalia Gavrilova and Leonid Gavrilov ask if mortality can actually increase after 80 More
Posted: 3.5.2012 4:28PM
News The Huffington Post: Observations on infancy and mortality with data and findings from the National Children's Study More
Posted: 2.22.2012 4:37PM
News UPI.com: Pondering mortality rates after 80, with research from NORC Expert Leonid Gavrilov More
Posted: 2.7.2012 2:03PM

Contacts

Jeffrey Hackett

(312) 759-4266