Documenting Variable Comparability with DDI-Lifecycle

ICPSR has recently been actively engaged in moving to DDI-Lifecycle to document some of its longitudinal data. Pilot projects involving the creation of DDI-L metadata for two of our most popular longitudinal studies have already been finalized, and the variable-level documentation for the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) is now publicly available for online searching and exploring comparability across waves. Using this previous work as a background, we will focus our presentation on a new, ongoing project that uses DDI-Lifecycle to document comparability between two independent longitudinal collections – the NSHAP and the National Health and Aging Study (NHATS) - that explore similar topics, with special focus on health and cognition issues among aging populations. We will elaborate on the steps, the tools we used, and the decisions taken to move this project forward, and will share practical details regarding its organization and progress. We will also include our findings regarding potential difficulties and benefits.