AGING ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE: RESEARCH COLLECTIONS AVAILABLE FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVE OF COMPUTERIZED DATA ON AGING

Abstract

Abstract Creating and maintaining sustainable data archives can be challenging but offers clear advantages. Properly curated data can be used by multiple researchers, testing a variety of hypotheses and increasing the return on investment to the expensive data collection process. An internally managed archival system also provides greater control and autonomy in the equitable distribution of data resources. This process ensures all researchers will fully use the data for original research, teaching, and new directions once the data leaves the control of the local investigator. This poster reviews the advantages of a local strategy for preserving and sharing gerontological research data. Using the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) as a working example, the poster offers an overview of collections at NACDA. Using our metadata tools and variable search database, NACDA can identify studies in its collections that examine aspects of aging and health among adults during their lifecourse. Many of the studies are longitudinal or repeat-measure cross-sectional studies. We can also identify studies that focus on aging not maintained by NACDA that are available to interested researchers. Using a strategy of archival preservation combined with a strong focus on productive research Innovation in Aging, NACDA has amassed data and metadata covering a wide array of studies worldwide that address the aging lifecourse. Because our collections are multinational, we share these data at no cost to interested users worldwide.