The multi-country Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) is run by the World Health Organization's Multi-Country Studies unit in the Innovation, Information, Evidence and Research Cluster. SAGE is part of the unit's Longitudinal Study Programme which is compiling longitudinal data on the health and well-being of adult populations, and the ageing process, through primary data collection and secondary data analysis. SAGE baseline data (Wave 0, 2002/3) was collected as part of WHO's World Health Survey (WHS). SAGE Wave 1 (2007/10) provides a comprehensive data set on the health and well-being of adults in six low and middle-income countries: China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russian Federation and South Africa.
Objectives:
To obtain reliable, valid and comparable health, health-related and well-being data over a range of key domains for adult and older adult populations in nationally representative samples
To examine patterns and dynamics of age-related changes in health and well-being using longitudinal follow-up of a cohort as they age, and to investigate socio-economic consequences of these health changes
To supplement and cross-validate self-reported measures of health and the anchoring vignette approach to improving comparability of self-reported measures, through measured performance tests for selected health domains
To collect health examination and biomarker data that improves reliability of morbidity and risk factor data and to objectively monitor the effect of interventions
Additional Objectives:
To generate large cohorts of older adult populations and comparison cohorts of younger populations for following-up intermediate outcomes, monitoring trends, examining transitions and life events, and addressing relationships between determinants and health, well-being and health-related outcomes
To develop a mechanism to link survey data to demographic surveillance site data
To build linkages with other national and multi-country ageing studies
To improve the methodologies to enhance the reliability and validity of health outcomes and determinants data
To provide a public-access information base to engage all stakeholders, including national policy makers and health systems planners, in planning and decision-making processes about the health and well-being of older adults
Questionnaires and a Stata help file for the Ghana SAGE are available here.
Data is available here through the WHO.