Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. 

The Harmonised Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) is part of the Healthy Cognitive Aging Project, a study examining how people's memory and thinking change as they get older. In England, HCAP is a sub-study of ELSA, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a longitudinal survey of ageing and quality of life among older people that explores the dynamic relationships between health and functioning, social networks and participation, and economic position as people plan for, move into and progress beyond retirement. (The main ELSA study is held under SN 5050.) ELSA HCAP interviewed ELSA core members aged 65 and over, and included a second, shorter interview with an informant, who was a family member or friend nominated by the ELSA core member to complete an interview on their behalf.  The HCAP study originated with the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States, which is a sister study to ELSA, a longitudinal study of people aged 50 and over in the United States. Researchers on HRS developed the protocols for HCAP, in discussion with researchers from ELSA and other international studies, and fieldwork in the United States began while ELSA HCAP in England was still in the planning stages. The aim of ELSA HCAP is to measure the prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment among older people in the ELSA panel, in order to: Understand more about how widespread these conditions are in England and increase our understanding of dementia;Test how well the cognitive assessments used in this study can identify these conditions. Health conditions research with ELSA - June 2021 The ELSA Data team have found some issues with historical data measuring health conditions. If you are intending to do any analysis looking at the following health conditions, then please contact elsadata@natcen.ac.uk for advice on how you should approach your analysis. The affected conditions are: eye conditions (glaucoma; diabetic eye disease; macular degeneration; cataract), CVD conditions (high blood pressure; angina; heart attack; Congestive Heart Failure; heart murmur; abnormal heart rhythm; diabetes; stroke; high cholesterol; other heart trouble) and chronic health conditions (chronic lung disease; asthma; arthritis; osteoporosis; cancer; Parkinson's Disease; emotional, nervous or psychiatric problems; Alzheimer's Disease; dementia; malignant blood disorder; multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease). HCAP scores developed by Alden Gross and colleagues - February 2024 For the third edition (February 2024), harmonised general and domain-specific cognitive scores were added from HCAP studies across six countries: China, England, India, Mexico, South Africa and the USA. The harmonised cognitive function scores have been developed by Alden Gross and colleagues. These scores empirically reflect comparable domains of cognitive function among older adults across the six countries, have high reliability and are useful for population-based research. The accompanying documentation includes a guidance file and the publication by Gross et al. (with supplement) that explains the scores and how they were derived. Each of the 1,273 participants in HCAP has a score on general cognitive function, executive function, language, orientation, and memory.

Main Topics:

Attention/concentration; language; memory; orientation; recall; recognition.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Face-to-face interview: Computer-assisted (CAPI/CAMI)

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)

Face-to-face interview: Paper-and-pencil (PAPI)