NLTCS Public Use Files

NLTCS Survey Data

NLTCS currently distributes two Public Use Files on CD-ROM:

• Survey data in ASCII format (1982, 1984, 1989, 1994, and 1999) and in SAS format for all waves. (Note that records in the 1982/1984 data vary in length from 3806 to 7102 characters. If you are reading these ASCII data into a SAS data set, it will be necessary to use the MISSOVER option on the INFILE statement so that SAS will assign missing values to variables read past the end of the record.)
• The Analytic Data File, a file of archived variables for all waves of the survey used in research and that incorporated correction factors and consistency checking based on analysis. The Analytic Data File covers the 1982 to 2004 waves of the survey and is available in both ASCII and SAS formats.

Final versions of the data for all waves up to and including the 1999 have been released and are supported by documentation, both online and as part of the distributed CD-ROM. The current data release is the 2004 Beta-2 version released on November 30, 2006.

Obtaining NLTCS Survey Data

Survey data are available currently only on CD-ROM.  To request a data CD, you must complete and return to us with your signature a Data Use Agreement (DUA).  The DUA should be mailed to:

NLTCS
P.O. Box 90408
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708

Attn: Kenneth G. Manton, PH.D.

For questions about the data release procedure, please contact

Kenneth G. Manton, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
919-668-6703
kgmanton@duke.edu

Download the Data Use Agreement.

Obtaining NLTCS Linked Data

The two currently available linked files (Vital Statistics and Medicare Parts A and B Service Use) are available through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  CMS has contracted with the Research Data Assistance Center (RESDAC) at the University of Minnesota to aid in the acquisition of CMS data. RESDAC staff can be contacted at 1-888-9RESDAC (1-888-973-7322) or resdac@umn.edu