Longitudinal Ageing Study in India

Although adult health and ageing is increasingly attracting a substantial amount of attention, no comprehensive and internationally comparable survey data currently available in India covers the entire range of topics necessary for understanding the economic, social, psychological, and health aspects of adults and the aging process. The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) is designed to fill this gap.

LASI Goals

The main goal of LASI is to collect credible scientific data on the burden of disease, mental health, functional health, health care, social and economic well being of the elderly population. LASI data is being collected based on internationally comparable research design, tools and adopts state of the art scientific methods to provide the foundation for credible and acceptable data – for national and state level policy making and long-term scientific research.

LASI Objectives

The main objective of LASI is to provide comprehensive longitudinal evidence base on health, social and economic wellbeing of the elderly population in India. LASI will provide data on demographics, household economic status, health and biomarkers, health insurance and health care utilization, family and social network, social security schemes, work and employment, retirement and pension, life satisfaction and expectations. LASI is designed to cover scientific data on five major subject and policy domains of the adult and older population of India namely:

1. Health: Disease burden & risk factors (reported and measured)
2. Health care and health care financing
3. Social: Family and social network
4. Economic: Income, wealth, expenditure, employment, retirement and pension
5. Welfare programs for Elderly

Geographic Coverage and Sampling Design

LASI wave-I covers all states and union territories of India with a panel sample of 72,000 older adults aged 45 years and above. The long-term goal of LASI is to continue this survey for the next 25 years with the first wave was undertaken in 2017-18 and second wave planned for 2021-22. LASI aims to obtain all the indicators for the states and union territories. In addition, LASI aims at obtaining indicators for each of the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.

Benefits

LASI focuses on the health, economic, and social well-being of India's elderly population. The concept of LASI is comparable to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States and is appropriately harmonized with other health and retirement studies such as SHARE, ELSA & MHAS, including its sister surveys in Asia. The most recent are the Korean Longitudinal Study on Ageing (KLoSA), the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). This comparability allows cross-country comparison of these surveys. Additionally, LASI considers the features that are unique to India, including its institutional and cultural characteristics. The LASI is India’s first and the largest amongst the global HRS family.

LASI is a national landmark in the scientific research, which facilitates an improved comprehension of India’s adult health problems and population aging processes and the design of appropriate evidence-based policies for adults and older people. This study provides sufficient statistical information required to test hypotheses in subpopulations of interest. LASI data can improve scientific knowledge and enlighten policymakers in India as well as around the world. The internationally harmonized data are useful for cross-national comparative research studies on aging.

Recent LASI publications

The first national wave of the LASI provides in-depth data on ageing, economic aspects, health status, social relationships, social support, family, and life satisfaction to help determine the specific needs, circumstances, and views of ageing adults in the light of changing social and familial circumstances. All measures, while specific and sensitive to the Indian context, have been harmonized to the greatest possible extent with its international sister surveys on ageing and retirement. This is done in order to provide a valuable source for comparison and to work towards providing a comprehensive picture of population ageing in India and comparative studies of global population ageing.

The LASI Wave 1 is a nationally representative survey of 72,250 older adults age 45 and above across all states and union territories of India. The data collection activities for the wave 1 was carried between April 2017 to December 2018.

To access the publications, click here. 

Source :  International Institute for Population Sciences