Harmonizing Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging

描述(由申请人提供)：本申请的具体目标是(1)协调韩国老龄化纵向研究(KLOSA)的第二波，以允许进行比较的跨国老龄化研究，以及(2)分析和向国际研究界传播国际协调的基线数据。Klosa是由韩国劳动部资助的一项关于韩国老龄化的多学科、具有全国代表性的小组调查。基线调查工具仿照美国的健康和退休研究，以实现对老龄化的跨国研究。在这项申请中，我们寻求资金，通过为基线报告准备英文文件和数据集，将2006年收集的基线数据传播给国际研究界。我们建议通过举办用户研讨会、制作公共数据、码本和基线报告的光盘以及在国际研究会议上展示公共数据、码本和文件来促进数据分发。我们还寻求资金，为第二波研究准备一个国际统一的调查工具，包括纵向跟踪访谈、对死者的离职访谈和对住院老人的基线访谈。我们提议执行的协调任务是与其他国家的老龄化调查工具进行系统比较，并建立事前可比性。拟议的投入对于促进使用其他国家的老龄化数据集进行跨国研究是必要的，如果没有这些投入，将失去开发可比较的老龄化数据的机会。人口老龄化几乎在世界所有地区都在发生。许多国家现在正处于调整政策以适应不断变化的人口的早期阶段，开始老龄化进程较晚的国家通常会经历一个更快的过程。特别是，韩国正处于政策制定的早期阶段，因为该国的政策侧重于经济发展，直到20世纪90年代才开始采用社会政策。随着不同国家采取不同的政策，自然实验正在进行中，这为科学家提供了检验各种政策效果的不同寻常的机会(国家研究委员会，2001)。为了进行这种调查，已促使一些国家提供统一的数据，利用同步抽样和质量控制程序收集概念上可比的信息。这种协调努力的一个很好的例子是HRS及其姊妹数据集，即ELSA和SHARE。从韩国开始，包括中国、日本和泰国在内的其他亚洲国家也在开发类似HRS的老龄化调查，协调KLOSA调查工具并将协调后的数据集传播到国际社会，将为亚洲其他老龄化调查树立良好榜样。科学进步将超越国界，通过开发国际统一数据，在互联网上传播，并在多语种支持下传播到国际社会。国家行为和社会研究处强调，“人口老龄化问题国际网络”是R21探索/发展赠款的关键领域之一，力求资助研究，以开发“促进在工业化国家和欠发达国家收集的数据统一或标准化的方法和机制”(见“为老龄化世界做准备：跨国研究案例”，国家研究理事会，2001年)和“人口健康和福祉的校准方法”((http://www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInformation/ExtramuralPrograms/BehavioralAndSocial Research/R21Grants.htm)。我们的项目通过发展人口老龄化方面的国际网络，直接回应了这一倡议。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Specific aims of this application are (1) to harmonize the second wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) to allow comparative cross-national studies of aging, and (2) to analyze and disseminate the internationally harmonized baseline data to the international research community. KLoSA is a multidisciplinary, nationally representative panel survey on aging in Korea, funded by the Korean Ministry of Labor. The baseline survey instrument was modeled after Health and Retirement Study in the U.S. to enable cross-national studies of aging. In this application, we seek funding to disseminate the baseline data collected during 2006 to the international research community by preparing English documentation and data sets with the baseline report. We propose to facilitate data distribution by conducting a user-workshop, creating CD- Rom of public data, codebook, and the baseline report, and displaying public data, codebook, and documentation at international research conferences. We also seek funding to prepare an internationally harmonized survey instrument for the second wave of the study, including a longitudinal follow-up interview, an exit interview for the deceased, and a baseline interview of institutionalized elders. The tasks that we propose to perform for harmonization is to make systematic comparisons with other countries' aging survey instruments and to establish ex ante comparability. The proposed inputs are necessary for facilitating cross-national studies with other countries' aging data set, and without these inputs, the opportunity to develop comparable aging data will be lost. Population aging is occurring practically in all regions of the world. Many countries are now at the early stages of adapting policies to their changing population, and countries that started the aging process later typically go through a more rapid process. Particularly, Korea is at an early stage of policy development, as the country's policy has focused on economic development and only recently in 1990s, social policy has begun to be adopted. As different countries adopt different policies, natural experiments are in progress, offering unusual opportunities for scientists to examine the effects of various policies (National Research Council, 2001). Enabling such investigation, a number of countries have been induced to provide harmonized data that collect conceptually comparable information using synchronized sampling and quality control procedures. A good example of such harmonization efforts is HRS and its sister data sets, namely ELSA, and SHARE. Starting with Korea, other Asian countries including China, Japan, and Thailand, are also in the process of developing HRS-like aging surveys, and harmonizing the KLoSA survey instrument and disseminating the harmonized data sets to the international community will set a good example for other aging surveys in Asia. Scientific advances will reach beyond the border through the development of internationally harmonized data that is disseminated through the Internet with multilingual support, reaching the international community. The Behavioral and Social Research Branch of NIA emphasized "International Networks in Population Aging" as one of the key areas for R21 Exploratory/Development Grants, seeking to fund research that develops "methodologies and mechanisms that facilitate the harmonization-or the standardization-of data collected in both industrialized (see Preparing for an Aging World: The Case for Cross-National Research, National Research Council, 2001) and less developed countries" and "methods for calibrating health and well-being across populations" (http://www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInformation/ExtramuralPrograms/ BehavioralAndSocialResearch/R21Grants.htm). Our project directly speaks to this initiative by developing international networks in population aging.