# National Social Life and Aging Project:  Wave 4

> **NIH NIH R01** · NATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER · 2020 · $7,081,677

## Abstract

The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) is a longitudinal study which
extends our understanding of the mechanisms through which the trajectories of social
connectivity and health are intertwined in an aging population. The project is unique among
nationally representative studies of older adults in the breadth and detail of health data
collected, incorporating physical, psychological, sensory, functional, cognitive and social
measures. In particular, we have unparalleled longitudinal measures of changes in the structure
of social networks and relationships of respondents and their partners throughout the study as
well as information on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs). We propose to
conduct in-home interviews in 2020–21 (Wave 4 [W4]) with all surviving respondents and their
spouses/partners from the first three waves (W1-W3), providing 15 years of follow-up and four
waves of data on this important cohort (aged 72-100 at W4). For innovations introduced in W2—
a multi-domain measure of cognition (the MoCA-SA), detailed olfactory assessment, complete
data from spouses/partners, an accelerometry study of sleep and daily activity, and more
comprehensive measures in all domains—W4 will provide a third data point needed to model
changes in health, associations, and causal relationships between them. We will enhance the
data with new measures of cognition, including item response times, proxy reports, and
diagnosis of ADRDs; linking to administrative data files, such as Medicare; and objectively
measuring, concurrently, all five classic senses. As one example, W4 will allow the testing of
key hypotheses regarding cognitive changes from normal function through dementia, providing
important insights into Alzheimer's disease.
 With these data, we aim to extend our understanding of the mechanisms through which the
trajectories of social connectivity and health are intertwined in an aging population. Additionally,
we will develop a framework for enrolling the oldest NSHAP subjects into internal and external
investigator initiated studies addressing novel social, behavioral, and clinical questions (such as
neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and related dementias) in representative
samples of this historically understudied population. With its rich and novel measures of social
networks and of the biological, physical and psychological components of health—all measured
longitudinally from both partners in a couple—NSHAP is uniquely poised to bridge the gap
between large, epidemiological studies of social relationships and health and experimental
studies of the mechanisms involved.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9900564
- **Project number:** 5R01AG043538-08
- **Recipient organization:** NATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** LINDA J WAITE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $7,081,677
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-09-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9900564

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9900564, National Social Life and Aging Project:  Wave 4 (5R01AG043538-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9900564. Licensed CC0.

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