DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests support for the assay of venous blood biomarker samples now collected in the fall of 2011 in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). This is a competing revision to an existing R01 grant that will support the collection of the first two national waves of the CHARLS panel, the first was fielded in 2011 and the second in 2013. The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) is a survey of the elderly in China, run by the National School for Development (China Center for Economic Research) at Peking University, together with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Ministry of Health. It is based on a sample of households with members aged 45 years and older... It is designed to produce a high quality public micro-database, which can provide a wide range of information from socio-economic status to health conditions, to serve the needs of scientific research on the elderly in China. CHARLS is also designed to allow comparisons with other studies in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) family of studies. With the support requested in this application we will assay venous blood collected in wave 1 of the national study from approximately 17,600 people for indicators of the level of inflammation, glycosylated hemoglobin, plasma glucose, lipids, and kidney functioning This will allow the comparison of levels of these biomarkers with socioeconomic, behavioral and contextual variables within China, with the comparison of levels and links with other variables other international surveys. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) will enrich the international landscape of aging studies. CHARLS follows closely the format and content of existing Health and Retirement Studies around the world in order to provide the capability for scholars to engage in comparative studies as well as studies of the special conditions in China. The first two national waves of CHARLS are scheduled for 2011 and 2013. This competitive revision will enable CHARLS to add results on important biomarkers from venous blood samples collected during the first wave of data collection.

The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) will enrich the international landscape of aging studies. CHARLS follows closely the format and content of existing Health and Retirement Studies around the world in order to provide the capability for scholars to engage in comparative studies as well as studies of the special conditions in China. The first two national waves of CHARLS are scheduled for 2011 and 2013. This competitive revision will enable CHARLS to add results on important biomarkers from venous blood samples collected during the first wave of data collection.