The Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) is a joint effort led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), USA, the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India, and the University of Southern California, USA. LASI collects comprehensive, high-quality scientific data on various aspects of aging that are representative at the national as well as the state and union territory levels. The survey instrument is reasonably harmonized with the US’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and its sister studies ongoing in nearly 50 other countries around the world.
The share of India’s population aged 60 and above is expected to double from 10% in 2020 to around 20% in 2050. This will present mounting challenges to the national government and to state and local governments to cater to the changing and growing health, social, and economic needs of this population. LASI aims to supply information required to understand the circumstances surrounding India’s aging population as well as provide a foundation for innovative, rigorous, and multidisciplinary research on aging in the country to inform policy and foster healthy ageing in India and beyond.
LASI’s baseline wave (Wave 1), which was conducted in 2017- 2019, collected data from over 73,000 individuals aged 45and older and their spouses (regardless of age) residing in non-institutional settings. Respondents and their households are planned to be followed every 3-4 years over a period of next 25 years to provide a life course perspective on aging-related issues.
At HSPH, LASI is led by Dr. David E. Bloom, who is Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography in the Department of Global Health and Population. Dr. Bloom has worked extensively on issues related to health, demography, and education in both developed and developing nations including India.