Twenty years’ follow-up on elder people’s health and quality of life

Abstract

With a brief overview on changes of elderly people and related socio-economic and policy changes during the last two decades in China, this review introduces the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The review also tracks follow-up survey waves that came after the initial CLHLS and the evolution of CLHLS questionnaire design over this 20 year period. The CLHLS database contains approximately 130 thousand records of surviving and deceased elderly people aged 65 and above. There is information on the demographics of the elderly population, as well as information on health status, the cognitive abilities of the elderly, their lifestyles, their ability to perform daily activities, and self-assessments of the elderly. There is also information on elderly care providers and family members. The review introduces the sampling design used by CLHLS, lists core information collected by the survey, and identifies major items added to follow-up surveys, including to the 2018 survey. It summarizes how CLHLS data is used and related publications.