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.