LONGITUDINAL AGEING STUDY IN INDIA

(LASI)
Wave 1, 2017-18

DATA USER GUIDE

This document provides a brief user guide of LASI Wave 1 micro data with
information on sampling design, data structure, and questionnaire content, as well
as information about publicly accessible data.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR POPULATION SCIENCES (IIPS)

MUMBAI - 400088
Suggested citation: International Institute for Population Sciences (2020). Data User Guide -
Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, IIPS, Mumbai

For additional information about the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1
Please contact:

Director / Principal Investigator (LASI Project)

International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai – 400 088.
Telephone: 022-42372401/682
Fax: 022-42372401
E-mail: iipslasi@gmail.com
iipslasi@iipsindia.ac.in
Website: https://www.iipsindia.ac.in/lasi/

1 | LASI WAVE 1 – DATA USER GUIDE

1. Introduction
The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) is a multidisciplinary, internationally harmonized
panel study of 73,396 older adults aged 45 and above including their spouses less than 45 years,
representative to India and all of its states and union territories. LASI is designed to provide
researchers and policymakers with comprehensive data on the key economic, social, and health
characteristics of India’s older population.

LASI Wave 1 was funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, the
National Institute on Aging (R01 AG042778), and United Nations Population Fund, India. LASI is
a collaborative study of three partnering institutions: International Institute for Population Sciences
(IIPS), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and University of Southern California
(USC) and several other national and international institutions.

LASI is the world’s largest and India’s first longitudinal ageing study. It is well-positioned to evaluate
the effect of changing policies on the behavioural outcomes in India. LASI survey design, tools and
protocols are harmonised with the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States and its
sister surveys in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere.

The main objective of the LASI is to provide a comprehensive scientific evidence base on
demographics, household economic status, chronic health conditions, symptom-based health
conditions, functional health, mental health (cognition and depression), biomarkers, health insurance
and healthcare utilization, family and social networks, social welfare programmes, work and
employment, retirement, satisfaction, and life expectations.

The LASI has embraced the state of the art of large-scale survey protocols and field implementation
strategies with one or more of the following innovative attributes that existing studies lack:
representative sample of India and its states and by socio-economic spectrum, an expansive topical
focus, harmonization with HRS, a longitudinal design, coverage of comprehensive biomarkers, and
the use of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) technology for data collection, quality
control and geographic information system (GIS) use. No other survey in India collects detailed data
on health and biomarkers together with data on family and social network, income, assets, and
consumption.
The LASI survey instrument comprises the household (HH) schedule, individual schedule, biomarker
surveys and community schedule. The household survey was conducted with a selected key
informant in each household. The individual and biomarker surveys were administered to each
selected respondent.

For more detailed information about LASI, its methodology and findings, please refer LASI India
Report (2020) at www.iipsindia.ac.in/lasi.

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2. Sampling Design
The LASI adopted a multistage stratified area probability cluster sampling design to arrive at the
eventual units of observation: older adults age 45 and above and their spouses irrespective of age.
Within each state, LASI Wave 1 adopted three-stage sampling design in rural areas and four-stage
sampling design in urban areas. In each state/UTs, the first stage involved selection of Primary
Sampling Units (PSUs), that is, sub-districts (Tehsils/Talukas), and the second stage involved the
selection of villages in rural areas and wards in urban areas in the selected PSUs. In rural areas,
households were selected from selected villages in the third stage. However, sampling in urban areas
involved an additional stage. Specifically, in the third stage, one Census Enumeration Block (CEB)
was randomly selected in each urban ward. In the fourth stage, households were selected from this
CEB.

Eligible households are defined as those with at least one member 45 years of age or above. Eligible
individuals are those in these eligible households who were 45 years of age or older and their spouses,
regardless of age. In addition, LASI oversamples individuals at age 65 and older from all states and
major cities.

Wave 1 of the LASI covered a panel sample of 73,396 individuals age 45 and above and their spouses,
including 31,902 elderly (age 60 and above) and 6,880 oldest-old persons (age 75 and above) from
all states and union territories of India (Table 1).

The LASI Wave 1 field survey was conducted across India from April 2017 to December 2018*. The
HH response rate is defined as the number of HHs which participated in the survey divided by the
total number of age-eligible sampled HHs. The overall household response rate is 96.6%. Household
response rate in urban areas is lower (94.7%) than the rural areas (97.5%). Individual response rate
is defined as the number of individuals who participated in the survey divided by the total number of
eligible individuals in age-eligible sampled HHs. Individual response rate is higher in rural (89.7%)
than in urban areas (83.7%) (Table 2).

* Data for Sikkim was collected in 2020 -21

LASI WAVE 1 – DATA USER GUIDE | 2

Table 1: Household roster completed, age-eligible households, and individuals interviewed across
states/UTs of India, LASI Wave 1, 2017-18

HH Rosters
Age- Age-eligible Age-eligible Individual
Completed
State/UTs Eligible HH Interviews Individuals Interviews
(age-eligible and
HHs Completed Identified Completed
non-age-eligible)
Haryana 1,821 1,285 1,251 2,391 1,898
Delhi 1,283 776 754 1,494 1,319
Rajasthan 2,200 1,336 1,302 2,493 2,244
Uttar Pradesh 4,721 2,820 2,747 4,965 4,567
Bihar 3,336 2,109 2,083 3,828 3,520
Chhattisgarh 1,943 1,259 1,189 2,272 2,055
Madhya Pradesh 2,790 1,727 1,690 3,241 2,914
Gujarat 2,159 1,579 1,455 3,039 2,341
Daman & Diu (UT) 1,236 662 577 1,271 991
Dadra & Nagar Haveli (UT) 1,370 741 631 1,373 1,090
Karnataka 2,018 1,555 1,488 2,981 2,420
Goa 1,147 958 877 1,857 1,427
Lakshadweep (UT) 894 694 627 1,328 1,139
Kerala 1883 1,542 1,411 3,000 2,497
Tamil Nadu 3,248 2,176 2,150 3,845 3,530
Puducherry (UT) 1,173 848 839 1,542 1,428
Jammu & Kashmir 1,435 963 957 1,813 1,613
Himachal Pradesh 1,081 838 805 1,683 1,388
Uttarakhand 1,256 878 863 1,566 1,358
Punjab 1769 1,296 1,234 2,519 2,124
Chandigarh (UT) 1,107 708 651 1,373 1,026
Arunachal Pradesh 1,163 704 702 1,291 1,215
Nagaland 1,207 803 799 1,367 1,316
Sikkim 1,029 649 635 1,209 1,146
Manipur 1,180 862 860 1,594 1,369
Mizoram 1,188 765 732 1,410 1,246
Tripura 1,099 748 721 1,374 1,195
Assam 2,281 1,540 1,511 2,817 2,366
West Bengal 3,201 2,296 2,279 4,428 3,933
Jharkhand 2,236 1,451 1,408 2,758 2,464
Odisha 2,306 1,670 1,645 3,102 2,917
Maharashtra 3,293 2,446 2,421 4,675 3,973
Andhra Pradesh 2,264 1,568 1,511 2,854 2,679
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (UT) 1,089 736 725 1,347 1,244
Telangana 2,272 1,487 1,418 2,703 2,475
Meghalaya 666 636 636 1,056 969
India 66,371 45,111 43,584 83,859 73,396

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Table 2: Household and individual response rate, states/UTs, India, LASI Wave 1, 2017-18

Household Response Rate Individual Response Rate

State/UTs
Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban
Haryana 96.8 96.9 96.8 79.3 80.1 77.6
Delhi 96.1 90.0 96.2 88.2 78.8 88.4
Rajasthan 97.2 97.5 95.8 90.0 91.3 85.5
Uttar Pradesh 96.8 98.5 91.1 91.9 94.3 83.9
Bihar 98.4 98.6 97.3 92.0 92.1 90.6
Chhattisgarh 94.4 96.3 86.5 90.4 91.3 86.8
Madhya Pradesh 97.3 98.3 95.0 89.9 92.2 84.5
Gujarat 91.8 94.4 88.2 77.0 81.7 70.9
Daman & Diu (UT) 86.0 88.3 84.8 78.0 77.1 78.5
Dadra & Nagar Haveli (UT) 85.1 86.1 83.4 79.7 83.4 73.7
Karnataka 94.6 96.6 90.7 81.1 82.0 79.3
Goa 91.0 91.1 91.0 76.7 73.1 79.3
Lakshadweep (UT) 90.1 89.8 90.2 85.9 91.4 84.3
Kerala 88.9 90.1 87.7 83.3 84.6 81.9
Tamil Nadu 98.0 98.8 97.4 91.8 94.1 90.3
Puducherry (UT) 98.2 99.6 97.6 92.5 95.1 91.3
Jammu & Kashmir 96.2 98.4 90.7 88.9 90.0 85.9
Himachal Pradesh 95.2 95.0 96.3 82.5 83.3 77.1
Uttarakhand 97.7 97.6 98.0 86.8 88.8 82.0
Punjab 93.4 94.5 91.0 84.2 86.4 78.9
Chandigarh (UT) 89.4 88.8 89.4 74.3 68.4 74.3
Arunachal Pradesh 99.2 98.9 100.0 94.0 93.1 97.1
Nagaland 99.3 99.3 99.1 96.3 97.7 92.9
Sikkim 97.8 97.6 98.6 94.8 95.4 92.7
Manipur 99.5 99.8 99.0 85.9 89.1 80.0
Mizoram 94.8 96.3 93.5 88.4 90.6 86.5
Tripura 96.1 97.4 92.2 87.1 89.1 81.1
Assam 98.1 98.4 95.5 84.0 84.3 81.9
West Bengal 98.4 99.7 97.2 88.8 90.4 87.2
Jharkhand 96.0 97.2 91.7 89.2 90.2 85.8
Orissa 98.1 98.8 94.4 93.8 95.4 86.5
Maharashtra 98.1 99.7 96.6 84.5 89.1 80.3
Andhra Pradesh 95.6 96.6 92.9 93.9 95.0 90.8
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (UT) 98.5 98.3 98.9 92.3 93.0 90.9
Telangana 94.9 97.6 89.4 91.6 94.4 86.4
India 96.6 97.5 94.7 87.5 89.7 83.7

A more detailed discussion on sampling frame, survey weights and procedures adopted is provided
in the chapter 2 (methodology section) of India report.

3. Survey Instrument and Data Files

The LASI survey instrument comprises the household survey schedule, individual survey schedule,
and biomarker surveys. The survey includes questions about demographics, economic, employment,
behavioural, social, physical and mental health characteristics, and an extensive set of cognitive
functioning tests. The survey questions were translated into 18 regional languages, and the interview
was done in the language of the respondent’s choice.

LASI WAVE 1 – DATA USER GUIDE | 4

3.1 Household Survey

The household survey collected data from a selected key informant, who could be any knowledgeable
adult aged 18 or older. It was administered per household and collected information about the
household finances and living conditions for all persons in the household. The data consists of five
modules, as listed below in Table 3.

Table 3: Description of household modules

Household Modules Description
Cover-screen (CV)/ household roster Household roster and basic demographic information about each
household member is provided.

Housing & Environment (HE)
Household Consumption (CO)
It covers information related to housing and environmental
condition of surveyed households.
This section covers information on household expenditure and
consumption of food and non-food items, including home-grown
goods

Household Assets and Debts (AD) Covers information related to home ownership, land ownership,
agricultural and business assets, financial and non-financial assets
and household debts.

Household Income (IN) Covers information related to agricultural income, non- agricultural
business income, individual earning, and household income from
government transfers, private transfers, other household income,
tax related questions, and overall economic condition.

Household Health Insurance (HI) Collect household level information about awareness of health
insurance, type of health insurance, type of coverage and health
insurance premiums.

3.2 Individual Survey

The individual survey was collected for each age-eligible respondent at least 45 years of age and their
spouse regardless of age. A proxy interview is done if the selected respondent is severely cognitively
or physically impaired or incapable of understanding or responding to human interaction. Proxy
interviews do not include biomarkers, psychosocial questions, cognitive tests, or experimental
modules. The individual survey consists of eight modules listed below in Table 4. Respondents
received one of four experimental modules, which were randomly assigned.

3.3 Biomarker Data

The biomarker data was collected for each consenting age-eligible respondent and their spouse in the
individual survey. Given the lack of health care services in India, biological markers (e.g.
anthropometrics, blood pressure, and dried blood spots) and performance measures (e.g. gait speed,
grip strength, balance, and vision) allow researchers to assess the measured health of the respondents.

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Table 4: Description of individual modules

Individual Modules Description

Demographics (DM)
Work, Retirement & Pension
(WE)
Detailed individual demographics (place of birth, caste, education, marital status,
etc.)
Respondent’s employment status. Cover details about ever worked & current
work, current main job, job search, last job of current non-workers, social
insurance, retirement, pension benefits, etc.

Health (HT)
Health Care Access and
Utilization (HC)
Family & Social Networks (FS)
Social Welfare Schemes (SW)
Self-reported health status, diagnosed chronic diseases, functional health, family
medical history, mental health, cognitive health, and health behaviours.
Collects information regarding in- patient visit, out-patient visit, health insurance,
quality of care, out of pocket (OOP) expenditure, etc.
Information related to the relationship with children, grandchildren, parents,
sibling and friends. This module also collects information on living arrangement,
available social support, and involvement in social activities, social security
programs meant for the elderly and psychological measure is collected under family
and social networks section.
Covers information about the awareness, utilizations of different national and state
level schemes and programs meant for senior citizens. Amount received under the
schemes and utilization of this money is also collected. Information on problem
faced in availing the benefits and grievance system is also collected. Awareness
about different types of concessions provided by the government to older people
is also asked.

Experimental Modules Questions about time use, economic expectations, social connectedness, and
(TU,EE,ES,EV) vignettes.
Biomarkers (BM) Performance tests (blood pressure, grip strength/hand strength, timed walk,
balance tests, vision tests), and anthropometrics.

3.4 Community Survey

It is essential to gather information at the community level (Rural and Urban) in addition to the
household and individual level information.

3.4.1. Rural community: Village is the smallest administrative unit in India. The educational, health
and other infrastructure facilities/amenities vary considerably from village to village. The key
informants for this schedule were village community head (Sarpanch/Pradhan/Up-
Pradhan/Panchayat Chairperson) and Village Officer/Secretary (administrative person in-charge of
the village). In addition, the survey team also contacted health personnel (ANM/Medical Officer),
school teacher, Gram -Sevak and other functionaries available in the village to gather the community
related information.

3.4.2. Urban community: LASI envisions collecting some information from urban areas using the
Urban Community Survey Schedule. The ward level information from the key informant who was
residing in the area for at least 2 years or knows about the area (elected representative/
officer/engineer/secretary/medical officer/health worker) specifically about the basic facilities, safety
and security of the particular ward was contacted. The CEB level information was collected from a
knowledgeable person of the community who were staying in that CEB for more than 20 years. For
the section which includes information regarding health, the key informant was any doctor or health
worker practicing in that area for at least 2 years.

LASI WAVE 1 – DATA USER GUIDE | 6

Table 5: Module-wise respondent’s eligibility criteria

Module Sub-section Eligible respondents for each sections

Head of the household
Cover- Cover-Screen/Household roster OR
Screen/household Any household member aged 18 and above, having
roster some basic knowledge about the household
members.

Head of the household

Housing & Environment OR
Any household member aged 18 and above and
most knowledgeable person about the housing
and environment condition of the household.
Household
Module
Household consumption Head of the household
OR
Household Assets and Debts Any household member aged 18 and above, who
has good knowledge of the household finances.
Household Income
OR
Health Insurance
Main food purchaser of that household

Demographics All persons aged 45 and above and his/her spouse

Family and Social Network irrespective of age.

Individual Module
Social Welfare Schemes

Health, Health Care Utilization

Work, Retirement and Pension

Biomarker, Experimental

4. Ethics and Informed Consent

As per ethics protocols, consent forms were administered to each HH and age-eligible individual. In
accordance with Human Subjects Protection, four consent forms were used in the LASI: Household
Informed Consent, Individual Informed Consent, Consent for Blood Sample Collection for Storage
and Future Use (DBS), and Proxy Consent.

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5. Conceptual Variables
5.1 Variable Prefix

LASI variables are indexed by module and serially by question number. The variable prefix is an
abbreviated version of the module name. Above tables 3 & 4 lists the variable prefix for each
household and individual module.

5.2 Identification variables

In the household data, hhid uniquely identifies a household. Prim_key uniquely identifies each
individual within a household, and is unique for each individual in the survey.

5.3 Household and Individual data

Four data files have been released: cover-screen (household roster) data, household data, individual
data and the biomarker data. There are 73,396 records in the individual data and each observation are
a unique respondent in the LASI survey. Please note that there are 6,537 individuals who did not
complete the biomarker module. For the household interview, total 43,701 households attempted for
household interview, of which 43,584 households had completed at least one households module
(criteria used in LASI and included these households for the analysis), 117 households could not be
considered as they have not fulfilled the criteria of inclusion. A total of 74,852 individuals have
attempted the individual schedule. Among these, 73,396 individuals have completed at least one
individual module, therefore these individuals have considered for analysis. A total of 66,613 eligible
and non-eligible households are considered for analysing the cover screen as these households have
given initial consent for conducting the LASI survey.

Table 6: Number of records in released data files

Data files Number of records

66,613
Cover-screen/Household roster data
(eligible and non-eligible households)
43,584
Household data
(Households)
73,396
Individual data
(Individuals)
Please note that the released data includes all HH and individuals who completed at least one module.

5.3a: Extension of hhid and prim_key

The variable hhid is given in household data and roster data. The variable hhid along with
prim_key is given in the individual data and the biomarker data. The HHid or prim_key is 15-digit
numbers. ex. 102045600120102, the extension of prim_key is given below.
Starting from left of the 15-digit prim_key
First digit 1 represent- Wave 1
02 - State id
0456 - SSUid (it is unique id)
0012 - HH structure id
01 - HH dwelling id
02 - Household member id
In case of HH data the hhid extension is same like prim_key extension, except the last two digits is
00.

LASI WAVE 1 – DATA USER GUIDE | 8

5.4 Sample Weight

The LASI sample weights account for selection probabilities and adjusted for non-response and post-
stratification to accurately represent the population characteristics. The LASI weights are available
for household data and individual data.

There are two types of household weight: one is national-level (indiahhweight) that should be used
to produce estimates at national level; and one is state-level (statehhweight) that should be used to
provide state level estimates.

Similarly, there are two types of individual weights are available: one is national-level
(indiaindividualweight) that should be used to produce nationally representative population
estimates; and one is state-level (stateindividualweight) that should be used to produce state
representative estimates.

5.5 Missing Codes

Respondents who refused or could not answer the questions are recoded with special missing codes:
“.d” for “Don’t know”, “.r” for “Refused”, and “.m” for “Missing”. The missing code (.E/.e/.E_) is
also used in the data for other reasons, including respondents were not asked specific questions, either
because of survey skip patterns or because respondents were not eligible to answer them.

5.6 Financial Reporting: Unfolding Brackets

Like other HRS studies, the LASI survey includes “unfolding bracket” questions to help respondents
to identify specific monetary evaluations of their assets, earnings, and consumption patterns.
Unfolding brackets ask respondents to indicate whether the amount in question is above or below a
certain threshold, randomly chosen from a set of five thresholds. These thresholds were derived from
National Sample Survey (NSS) to reflect the distribution of various consumption patterns in rural
and urban settings across the country. Respondents typically proceed through three brackets until an
upper and lower bound can be identified by deduction.

Typically, for these unfolding bracket questions, there are seven corresponding auxiliary variables in
the data. Consider the question ad502 from the Household Assets and Debts module in the household
LASI interview. It asks the current value of all farming/agriculture assets/equipment that the
respondent’s household owns.

Its seven corresponding variables are:

1. ad502: the amount of the current value of all agriculture assets. The household financial
respondents were able to provide an exact value without being prompted by the unfolding brackets.
2. ad502a & ad502a_thres: less than, more than, or about the same value based on the randomly
assigned bracket thresholds (500, 1500, or 5000).
3. ad502b & ad502b_thres: less than, more than, or about the same value based on the randomly
assigned bracket thresholds (1500, 5000, or 40000).
4. ad502c & ad502c_thres: less than, more than, or about the same value based on the randomly
assigned bracket thresholds (5000 or 40000).

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5.7 Income Variables

Data quality assessment indicated that economic data, particularly income data, was the most difficult
part of LASI questionnaire for field investigators. There was a tendency among some
households/individuals to underreport their actual income. In some cases, investigator typo error of
adding more zeros inflated the income i.e. Rs. 5,000 became Rs. 50,000. Both extreme negative
income and upper values make major difference to the state’s median income. In these cases, data
cleaning and imputation were required. Household income data imputation was done in case the
following two types of missing information.

Case 1
Households reporting zero income: If any households reported zero income from various sources
namely, agricultural and allied activities, non-agricultural business or self-employed activities,
wages/salary, pension, and government transfers, in that case, the cases were matched between the
individual data file and the household data file. Income information was also collected at individual
level (Please note that the work section of individual data file gives information about the income for
each and every individual) and case-wise income data were merged accordingly for the households
if income was reported in the individual survey. The total income of all individuals of a particular
household was summed up and this value was replaced in the household section variable showing
zero income.
Secondly, in some of the households, zero income was reported for specific sources, essentially
implying “missing values”. In this case, the median value of that particular SSU was imputed and
missing values were replaced with source-wise income for the households.
Third, there were outliers in the reported income (either very high income or very low income). In
some of the households, income was reported either very high or very low (outliers) from single or
multiple sources of income. With the help of box plots, data was visualised which depicted the
presence of outliers. Further, frequency checks were conducted to detect and segregate outlier cases
(households).
For households with low or high outliers, work status of individuals, education, land holding & land
size and business information available for the household were checked. Data was thoroughly
scrutinised and income imputation was done based on the available information such as type of
source of income, level of education, type of occupation, place of residence, family size, land use
and availability of assets.

Case 2
Misreporting of income information: For example, screening questions which is the key for income
from different sources at the household level, inconsistencies were checked with respective sources.
Screening variables such as in001, in002, in003, in004, in005 which provides information about type
of activity involved were checked and corrected in case of misreporting. If there was any income
reported (different sources) for the later set of questions of the subsequent section and there were no
missing values, then the screening question response was corrected as “1” (yes). In case of no income,
then the screening variable outcome was corrected as ”2” (no).

L A S I W A V E 1 – D A T A U S E R G U I D E | 10
Comparison with other sources: In consideration of all these cases, the cleaning and imputation of
income data was done and also the validation of the income data with other available government
data (Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) was
compared. After cleaning and imputation of missing values, it was found that the rank correlation
was more than 0.9 between LASI HH income and CSO (2017-18) income data across states of India.

Table 7: Variables used for computing the source-wise income variables by using screening questions.
Variables used for computation Computed variables
in103a in103b in103c in103d in103e in107. Agriculture_income : Total income from agriculture
in107a_thres in107b_thres in107c_thres

in204_1_ in204_2_ in204_3_ in204_4_ in204_5_ Non_agriculture_bussiness_income: Total income

in204_6_ in204_7_ in204_8_ in204_9_ in204_10_ from non- agricultural business
in204_11_ in204_12_ in204_13_ in204_14_ in204_15_
in204_16_ in204_17_ in204_18_ in204_19_ in204_20_
in204a_thres_`o'_ in204b_thres_`o'_
in204c_thres_`o'_
in304_*_1_ Wages_salary_income: Total income from wages
in304_*_2_ and salaries
in304_*_3_
in304_*_4_
in304_*_5_
in304_*_6_
in305a_thres in305b_thres in305c_thres

in402a_*_ Pension_income: Total income from pension

in402b_*_
in402c_*_
in402d_*_
in402e_*_
In403a_thres in403b_thres in403c_thres
in702a in702b in702c in702d in702e in702f in702g Government_transfers: Total income from govt.
in702h in702i in702j in702k in702l in702m transfers
in703a_thres in703b_thres in703c_thres
in602a in602a_thres in602b in602b_thres in602c Other_HH_income: Total income from other
in602c_thres sources
Sum of Agriculture income, Total_HH_income: Total household income-from all
Non_agriculture_bussiness_income, sources
Wages_salary_income, Pension_income,
Government_transfers, Other_HH_income

5.8 MPCE computation

In the LASI survey, data on consumption expenditure are collected using the abridged version of the
consumption schedule of the National Sample Survey (NSS). Sets of 11 and 29 questions on the
expenditures on food and non-food items, respectively, was used to canvas the sample households.
Food expenditure was collected based on a reference period of seven days, and non-food expenditure
was collected based on reference periods of 30 days and 365 days. Food and non-food expenditures
have been standardised to the 30-day reference period. The monthly per capita consumption
expenditure (MPCE quintile) is computed and used as the summary measure of consumption.
Monthly per capita consumption expenditure = Total consumption expenditure/Household size.
Please note that for calculation of monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) population
weight (weight*household size) was used.

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6. Merging of Data

The all datasets (household roster, household, individual, biomarker and community) can be merged
using a prim_key or hhid or ssuid variables given in the datasets as required.

Note: The count mismatch on merging the individual & housing datasets is possible because there
are some households where LASI household (housing sections) information has been collected but
LASI eligible individual has not been interviewed from that household (due to refusal/un-availability
etc.) and vice versa. Therefore, on merging individual & housing datasets, only matched cases will
show data from both the files.

Data merge summary for your reference-

Housing dataset count- 43,584
Individual dataset count- 73,396 (from 43,359 distinct households)
On merge, matched rows from Individual dataset- 72,270 and from Housing dataset- 42,484

The mismatch count on merging Household and Individual dataset-

On merging Housing and Individual datasets Mismatch count

Housing data available but no Individual The housing sections data from 1,100 households
data are available but no LASI eligible individual has
been interviewed from these households, so no
individual sections data available for these
households.
Individual data available but no Housing The individual sections data for 1,126
data individuals are available but their corresponding
875 distinct households housing sections data
not available.

7. Accessing the Data

7.1 Data Registration

The LASI released the data through the IIPS website (www.iipsindia.ac.in/lasi ). A data request form
is available on IIPS website (https://iipsindia.ac.in/content/data-request ), which every user need to
submit along with a copy of valid photo identity card. The request will be processed by ICT Centre
of IIPS.

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References

International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), NPHCE, MoHFW, Harvard T. H. Chan School
of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Southern California (USC) (2020). Longitudinal
Ageing Study in India (LASI)Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report, International Institute for
Population Sciences, Mumbai.

International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and NPHCE, MoHFW (2020). Longitudinal Ageing
Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, Factsheets – States/UTs, International Institute for
Population Sciences, Mumbai.

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