Benchmarking weighted estimates of social determinants of Health in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS)

For reasons of feasibility and efficiency, studies designed to be nationally representative of a specific target population often use complex sampling strategies and apply weights to adjust for differential probabilities of selection and nonresponse.1 These weights are primarily based on demographic characteristics, with socioeconomic factors, particularly those that are not available in administrative records, often underrepresented in the weighting process. The goal of the current study was to benchmark the weighted prevalence estimates of a set of individual-level and contextual-level indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage among community-living older persons in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) against nationally representative values from the US Census Bureau. On September 30, 2010, the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) drew a random sample of persons 65 or older in the contiguous United States from the Medicare enrollment file.2 Medicare beneficiaries were selected using a stratified, multistage sampling design that included geographic clustering and oversampling of the oldest age groups and non-Hispanic Blacks.3 Round 1 assessments, completed from May through November 2011, yielded a sample of 8245 persons with a 71% weighted response rate.