Note from the Directors

We want to offer you a warm welcome to the Health and Retirement Study or HRS. Whether you are new to the study or you have been with us since we began in 1992, we offer you heartfelt thanks. As a member of the study, you are part of a scientific sample of people, which means you represent thousands of other people across the country. Your participation is crucial to making sure we accurately represent people like yourself.

We also want to share a few very important things that you should know.

• The study receives its funding from the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.

• The interviewers who contact you are professionally trained employees of the University of Michigan.

• The interview asks questions about a wide range of topics. University staff who pledge to keep your information confidential add it together with answers given by thousands of people across America.

• Researchers use this compiled information to help understand about all about how life changes as we get older.

We hope you enjoy learning more about the study on this website.