From Dr. Burgard:
Major ongoing longitudinal studies of aging start interviewing respondents in later life and have added retrospective life history (RLH) interviews or retrospective questions to fill in information about earlier exposures and experiences of theoretical interest. These RLH interviews are relatively quick and cost-effective, but how good are RLH data? Are there measurement issues that have implications for how we understand life course exposures or the way they link to later life outcomes? If there are such issues, do they affect all individuals, or influence some groups more than others? This talk will present results that speak to these questions from an adaptation of the SHARELIFE RLH interview – the ACLLIFE interview – that was collected in 2021 from respondents of the long running American’s Changing Lives (ACL) prospective study, who were 25 and older at baseline in 1986.
Dr. Sara Burgard conducts research on the social stratification of aging and health with population-based survey data, and have published extensively on the social factors underlying health disparities by socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity across the life course. She has focused particularly on the links between employment and health in later life, including mental health, chronic disease and overall health status, and health behaviors. Some of her recent research and funding has centered on understanding these questions in the context of economic recessions, which disrupt career, economic, and health paths for many adults, but especially for socioeconomically-marginalized groups.
