science

Mexican Health and Aging Study

Mexican Health and Aging Study is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mexican Health and Aging Study rather than just read about it. In short: The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), also known by its Spanish name, Estudio Nacional de Salud y Envejecimiento en México, ENASEM, is the first panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The first phase of MHAS (waves 1 and 2) was supported by a grant from the MHAS was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (AG 18016, BJ Soldo, PI).

Key takeaways

Mexican Health and Aging Study belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mexican Health and Aging Study to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mexican Health and Aging Study from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), also known by its Spanish name, Estudio Nacional de Salud y Envejecimiento en México, ENASEM, is the first panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The first phase of MHAS (waves 1 and 2) was supported by a grant from the MHAS was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (AG 18016, BJ Soldo, PI). The study was a collaborative effort among researchers from the Universities of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Wisconsin in the U.S., and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática (INEGI, Mexico). The second phase of MHAS (waves 3 and 4) is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (R01AG018016, R Wong, PI) and by the INEGI in Mexico. The new study is a collaborative effort from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática (INEGI, Mexico), the University of Wisconsin, the Instituto Nacional de Geriatría (INGER, Mexico) and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP, Mexico).

Study goals The overall goal of the study is to examine the aging process and its disease and disability burden in a large representative panel of older Mexicans from a wide socioeconomic spectrum. The MHAS design was motivated by several research questions related to the dynamics of health and aging in Mexico; the effect on the multiple domains of health of early- and mid-life health behaviors, migration, transfers, and socioeconomic status; and health selectivity among migrants to the U.S. and among those returning to Mexico.

Study description The MHAS includes a nationally representative sample of Mexicans 50 years and older and their spouses of partners regardless of age, and used protocols and survey instruments that are highly comparable to the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The baseline survey is a national representative survey of individuals born prior to 1951. The baseline survey was conducted in 2001, and a follow-up visit to the same individuals was conducted in 2003. The sample for the MHAS baseline was selected from residents of both rural and urban areas, from the National Employment survey (Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, ENE), carried out by the INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia) in Mexico; 11,000 households with at least one resident of age 50 or older were eligible to be part of the MHAS baseline sample. The baseline survey was conducted in the summer of 2001 with a sample size of 15,186 respondents. A direct interview was sought with each individual, and proxy interviews obtained when poor health or temporary absence precluded a direct interview. A follow-up survey was carried out in the summer of 2003; all age-eligible subjects from the 2001 wave were targeted even if they had moved. If the subject had died, an interview was conducted with an informed respondent. New spouses of respondents from 2001 were interviewed and included in the 2003 follow-up study, for a total of 14,250 interviews including 546 next-of-kin interviews. A follow-up visit was completed in 2012. In addition to a follow-up of the 2001 and 2003 respondents, the sample was refreshed by adding a representative sample of the population from the 1952-1962 birth cohorts, as well as their spouses/partners regardless of age. Similar to the baseline interview, the sampling frame for the new cohort sample was the Mexican National Employment and Occupation Survey (ENOE, previously named National Employment Survey, ENE) 2012. During the 2012 survey, 18,465 interviews were completed, including 2,742 next-of-kin interviews. The survey was conducted using a new CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) system. Also new to the third wave of the study was the collection of a blood sample for biomarkers from a sub-sample (n=2,089) and questions on the occurrence of major life events of the respondents. The MHAS is a high quality study, with excellent response and follow-up rates. Response rates for waves in 2001, 2003 and 2012 were 91.8%, 93.3% and 88.1%, respectively. The next wave of the study is planned to be fielded in 2015.

Study website The study website has a user-friendly environment that was designed to enhance the usability of and access to MHAS survey data and documentation. The platform is in both English (www.MHASweb.org and Spanish (www.ENASEM.org). Databases and study documents can be accessed from the website and include: • Questionnaires • Interviewer and Coder Manuals • Codebooks with variable codes and frequencies • Follow-up master file to link study subjects through the three waves • Fieldwork reports: duration of interviews, response rates The website also features a searchable database of publications using MHAS data and a discussion forum available to all users. The discussion forum can be used to facilitate research collaborations and share knowledge among users, including codes for constructing common variables. The database of publications is a non-exhaustive compilation of peer-reviewed publications, working papers, and other research documents using MHAS data.

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mexican Health and Aging Study

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mexican Health and Aging Study claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mexican Health and Aging Study before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mexican Health and Aging Study ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mexican Health and Aging Study

In research: Mexican Health and Aging Study appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mexican Health and Aging Study in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mexican Health and Aging Study is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cohort studies, Health in Mexico, Old age by country, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mexican Health and Aging Study outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mexican Health and Aging Study in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mexican Health and Aging Study means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mexican Health and Aging Study out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mexican Health and Aging Study in simple terms?

Why does Mexican Health and Aging Study matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mexican Health and Aging Study?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mexican Health and Aging Study.