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Nurses’ Health Study (NHS I) and Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II)

Country: United States

Study Design: Observational cohort with repeated measurements over time

Participant age range: Early adulthood or midlife at enrollment

Number of participants at baseline: 121,700 (NHS I); 116,430 (NHS II)

Year of initial enrollment: 1976 (NHS I); 1989 (NHS II)

Number of data collection waves: 23 (NHS I) and 17 (NHS II); data collection ongoing

Measures of well-being:

  • Optimism

  • Purpose / Meaning in Life / Ikigai

  • Life Satisfaction

Quantity of well-being measures (e.g., number of constructs, number of times of well-being was assessed:  Moderate

Quality of well-being measures (e.g., were measures reliable and valid in the study population): High

Measures of physical health: 

  • Self-rated / questionnaire-based health

  • Self-report medical history or medication use

  • Measured anthropometrics, e.g., weight

  • Biomarkers

  • Genetics

  • Linked medical records

  • Adjudicated health outcomes

Access information:

This dataset is available to all researchers.

Researchers are required to submit an application to access this data. Fees are required to access this dataset.

Notable Citation: Kim E, Hagan K, Grodstein F, DeMeo D, De Vivo I, & Kubzansky L. (2017). Optimism and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study. American journal of epidemiology, 185(1), 21-29.

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