International Institute for Population Sciences
Deemed to be University (An Autonomous Organization of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India)

LASI Wave 1 Instrument

The LASI instrument has three Schedules:

1. Household Schedules (administered one per LASI selected eligible household):

• The household schedules start with the cover screen/Roster, containing questions about the demographic composition of the household and identifying key informants for the following household modules
• Housing and Environment section, consist of questions about the household’s physical dwelling, residential history, and physical and social characteristics of neighborhood
• Consumption section is designed to collect data on both market-purchased and home-produced consumption at the household level
• Assets and Debts section includes detailed questions about financial and non-financial assets and debts.
• Income section which attempts to capture the complete profile of income of all household members from all sources, as well as remittances from non-household members
• Health Insurance section attempts to gather information on all the government and private health insurance schemes which provide health care facilities at national and state level, policy coverage and benefits offered by policy

2. Individual Schedules (administered to each respondent of aged 45+ and his/her spouses irrespective of age)

• Demographics section: includes birth date, sex, religion, caste, language, marital status, literacy, education, and questions designed to approximate the age for illiterate respondents
• Family and Social Networks section: covers detailed questions about all immediate family members, including parents, children, and siblings, both alive and deceased, social activities, and psychosocial measures of life satisfaction, emotional proximity, social status, care-giving, elder ill-treatment, etc.
• Social Welfare Schemes section: This section will gather information on the awareness and utilization of various social security programmes in India.
• Health section: consists of questions about overall health and specific diseases, functional health, Family Medical History, mental health including Cognition and Depression, and health behaviour & Food Security
• Healthcare Access and Utilization section: designed to capture access to and use of different types of health care providers;
• Work, Retirement and Pension section: includes questions about current job (including self-employment and (subsistence) agriculture) and employment history;
• Experimental modules section: addresses topics beyond the scope of the main survey, to test new concepts, questions and surveying techniques. Each individual respondent will be randomly assigned to one of the four modules described below, so that each module is administered to roughly 25% of the total survey sample. It includes the following modules: a) Time utilization by older population – by type of activities, b) Expectations of work, survival, work–limiting health problems and inflation c) Extent of social connectedness of elderly population with family and friends d) Determining health status of elderly through the use of vignettes
• Biomarkers: The survey also includes the biomarkers module, which administers range of physical and functional measures of health and collects Dried Blood Spots (DBS).

LASI covers wide range of direct physical examinations: physical tests and markers. The biomarker collection done in the field by following the developed standardized protocols and procedures. In LASI, comprehensive biomarkers for measured health risk and morbidity comprises of:

• Anthropometric Measurements: Height, weight, Waist Circumference, Hip Circumference
• Functional Health Markers: Blood Pressure and Pulse rate (CVD), Lung Function Test (Obstructive airway diseases (OAD)/Respiratory Diseases),Vision Test: Near and Distance visual acuity (Near and Distance visual acuity)
• Performance Based Markers: Grip Strength, Timed-walk, Balance test
• Dried Blood Spot (DBS) based Markers: C-reactive Protein (CRP) (CVD), Epstein Bar virus (Immunity), Glycosylated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) (Diabetes), Haemoglobin (Hb) (Anaemia)

3. Community Schedules (administered at community level, village/rural and Urban/ward)

• The key informants for this schedule in rural areas are village community head (Sarpanch/Pradhan/Up-pradhan/Panchayat chairperson) and village officer/Secretary (administrative person in-charge of the village).
• The key informants for this schedule in urban ward areas are elected member/ officers/ engineers/ secretary who knows about the ward area for at least 2 years. Moreover, the health section answered by Chief Medical Officer in the ward office.

The objective of conducting this survey in community(rural/urban) areas are:

• To study the community characteristics, which includes demographic, social, economic and infrastructural features;
• Access to educational institutions, health facilities, transport facilities and other public services for the community and elderly adults;
• Examine the awareness and coverage of government programs related to health, social security and welfare;
• Identify the problems faced by elderly.

LASI Manuals :

For effective training, field implementation and survey monitoring, LASI developed specific manuals. This includes House listing Manual, Interviewers & supervisors Manual, CAPI Manual, Biomarker Manual, Community Survey Manual and GPS manual.