ELSA 50+ Life History Interview
About the study
So far, most of the information collected on ELSA 50+ Health and Life has been about your current circumstances. We know much less about your life before you joined ELSA. To better understand how early life can influence later life experiences, we would like to ask about key events that happened earlier in your life, before you joined ELSA. This online survey will include topics such as family, relationships, places you’ve lived and worked and health.
Frequently Asked Questions
What will it involve?
This time, the survey involves completing a questionnaire online. It should take around 60 minutes to complete. You may find it useful to consult family members, or personal records, photos, or notes you go through the questions. We will provide detailed instructions on how to access the survey along with your invitation.
The survey includes a life history calendar to help you recall the timings of important moments in your life. Instructions of how to use the calendar can be found here. These instructions are also included in the survey.
If you are unable to complete the survey online, one of our interviewers will telephone you to see if you would like to take part over the phone. You can also contact us to arrange a time to complete it over the phone. You can email us at elsa@natcen.ac.uk or call our freephone: 0800 652 4574.
How do I access the survey?
If you have received an invitation email, clicking on the link in the email will take you directly to the survey. Your invitation letter will also contain the link to the survey, but you will need to type this in to the address bar of your internet browser (e.g. Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, etc.) to access the survey. Please note that the address bar is right at the top of your browser, and looks like this:
A token of our appreciation
Once you have completed the survey, we will send you a £10 Love2shop voucher as a thank you for taking part.
Why have I been selected to take part?
You have been selected as you are part of ELSA 50+ Health and Life and have recently taken part in Wave 11 of the study. Taking part in this additional study is entirely voluntary and will not affect your involvement in the regular ELSA survey. However, your participation is very important to us, as it will help us understand better how early life influences later life experiences.
Who is carrying out the research?
The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is carrying out the study as part of the ELSA collaboration led by University College London and also involving the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the University of Manchester, and the University of East Anglia.
How will the results be used?
Government, charities and academics use ELSA data when thinking about policies and initiatives for people aged 50 and over. The life history interview will enable us to gather more detailed information about important events that have occurred in your life before you joined ELSA. The results from this study will inform researchers about the impact of early life experiences on people’s health, economic circumstances, and quality of life in later life.
How do you safeguard my privacy?
We will treat your information in the strictest confidence under UK GDPR data protection legislation. Your answers are put with those collected from people across England and the survey findings are used for research that benefits society. You will not be identifiable from the published results. You can read more about the ELSA privacy policy here: https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/privacy-notice.
Can I request access to my data?
Your data is used for research purposes and therefore not all GDPR rights apply. For more information, please see the link above for the ELSA privacy notice. We will, however, always do our best to meet any requests for your data to be accessed, deleted or amended. For more information or to request to delete your data, contact the NatCen Data Protection Officer by email: dpo@natcen.ac.uk.
How to get in touch?
If you have changed your contact details recently, or have any questions, please let us know by emailing us at elsa@natcen.ac.uk or calling free on 0800 652 4574 (opening times are Monday to Thursday 09:00 to 20:00, Friday 09:00 to 17:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 16:00).