Skip to content
MyData Login
 

Description & Citation--Study No. 9379

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:9379
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09379
 
Title:National Survey of Problems Facing Elderly Americans Living Alone, 1986
 
Principal Investigator(s):Karen Davis
 
  The Commonwealth Fund Commission on Elderly People Living Alone
 
Funding Agency:The Commonwealth Fund.
 
Grant Number:#9030
 
Bibliographic Citation:Davis, Karen, and The Commonwealth Fund Commission on Elderly People Living Alone. NATIONAL SURVEY OF PROBLEMS FACING ELDERLY AMERICANS LIVING ALONE, 1986 [Computer file]. Conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. ICPSR09379-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], December 1991. doi:10.3886/ICPSR09379
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This survey was designed to obtain a clear picture of the resources, problems, needs, and preferences of the eight million elderly Americans who live alone. The questions cover not only living arrangements and demographic information, but also economic well-being, health, health care, health insurance, difficulties and fears, need for help, obtaining help, and opinions on policies that have been proposed on the behalf of the elderly. The living arrangements of those in the sample fell into three categories: approximately 30 percent lived alone, 54 percent lived with spouses, and 16 percent lived with children or others. The sample included 903 widowed women over age 65. Comparable data on a Hispanic American sample, who were interviewed with the same questionnaire, are available in NATIONAL SURVEY OF HISPANIC ELDERLY LIVING ALONE, 1988 (ICPSR 9289).
 
Subject Term(s):health care, health insurance, health status, living arrangements, needs assessment, older adults
 
Geographic Coverage:United States
 
Time Period:June 1986 - July 1986
 
Date(s) of Collection:June 11, 1986 - July 31, 1986
 
Universe:Noninstitutionalized elderly persons in the continental United States.
 
Data Type:survey data
 
Data Collection Notes:Age distribution of the sample is 65-69 (N = 798), 70-74 (N = 530), 75-79 (N = 667), 80-84 (N = 330), and 85+ (N = 154). Racial distribution is White (N = 2,240) and Black (N = 160).
 

Methodology

Sample:Random digit dialing of approximately 23,000 telephone numbers nationwide was used to locate and interview a representative cross-sectional sample of 2,002 persons aged 65 and over. This was supplemented by an oversample of 504 additional persons aged 75 and over. All data in the survey are weighted by sex, age, race, education, region, and living arrangements to conform with the 1985 Census Bureau estimates.
 
Data Source:telephone interviews
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Original ICPSR Release:1991-03-05
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: National Survey of Problems Facing Elderly Americans Living Alone, 1986
  • DS2: Frequencies File
 

^ top of page