BLSA Status Change Dates

This data set tracks the dates that the BLSA learned of a participant's change of status. This is not necessarily the actual date of status change, but rather the date that it was known to the system. The purpose of saving these data is to be able to reconstruct the status of the BLSA population retrospectively.

For instance, if a participant dies on 1/1/92, but the death information is not received and entered until 4/1/92, then that participant would be counted as alive on any status reports generated during that interval. While the death card (999) must report the actual date of death, this data set contains the 4/1/92 date, the date that the information was first reflected in computer reports. The same is true with withdrawn participants, in that it is not the date of withdrawal, but the date of entry into the system that is captured.

Failures are not recorded since they are computed automatically from the date of the prior visit. Multiple withdrawal dates can be recorded, if the participant withdraws, re-enrolls, and then withdraws again.

This global was initialized on 19 May 1992 from the best information available for withdrawn participants and date of death for deceased participants.

These data are updated quarterly.

Data exist for deceased and withdrawn participants.

The SAS System                              10:42 Wednesday, October 6, 1999   1
 
 CONTENTS PROCEDURE
 
 Data Set Name: LIBRARY.INFOSTAT                       Observations:         1236
 Member Type:   DATA                                   Variables:            3   
 Engine:        V612                                   Indexes:              0   
 Created:       11:42 Friday, October 1, 1999          Observation Length:   24  
 Last Modified: 11:42 Friday, October 1, 1999          Deleted Observations: 0   
 Protection:                                           Compressed:           NO  
 Data Set Type:                                        Sorted:               NO  
 Label:                                                                          
 
 -----Engine/Host Dependent Information-----
 
 Data Set Page Size:       8192    
 Number of Data Set Pages: 4       
 File Format:              607     
 First Data Page:          1       
 Max Obs per Page:         338     
 Obs in First Data Page:   310     
 Filename:                 DISK$GRCUSR:[BLSCDS.BLS$SDF]INFOSTAT.SASEB$DATA
 Host Format:              AXP
 Disk Blocks Allocated:    69         
 
     -----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes-----
  
 #    Variable    Type    Len    Pos    Label
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 1    IDNO        Num       8      0                          
 2    WD          Char      8      8    Withdrawal or Death   
 3    WDDATE      Num       8     16    Date known to the BLSA
The SAS System                              10:42 Wednesday, October 6, 1999   2
 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |       FORMAT NAME: $WD_     LENGTH:    9   NUMBER OF VALUES:    2        |
 |   MIN LENGTH:   1  MAX LENGTH:  40  DEFAULT LENGTH   9  FUZZ:        0   |
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |START           |END             |LABEL  (VER. 6.12    01OCT99:11:42:20)  |
 |----------------+----------------+----------------------------------------|
 |D               |D               |Deceased                                |
 |W               |W               |Withdrawn                               |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------