Tracker Weights Addendum

Important Addendum to the Guide for New Users Regarding the New Tracker Weights File

The HRS Cross-Wave Tracker file, or more simply, the Tracker File, is created to facilitate the use of HRS data within and across waves. The file contains one record for every person who was ever eligible to be interviewed in any wave. Each record contains basic demographic information, interview status, and if, when, and how an interview was conducted in each wave. Historically, the weight variables were also included in the Tracker File. However, beginning with the 2022 HRS Tracker (Version 2.0) release, all weight variables previously included in the Tracker File have been moved to a separate, Tracker Weights File. Separating the weights from the Tracker File allows HRS to provide more timely updates to both the Tracker File and Tracker Weights File while maintaining access to all weight variables.

The Tracker Weights File contains household and respondent level sample weights for each wave of the survey, associated design variables, and subsample weights. The sample weights are constructed to make the HRS weighted sample representative of all U.S. households containing at least one person in the age-eligible range (for household weights) or of non-institutionalized individuals in the U.S. population in the age-eligible range (for respondent weights). Researchers conducting analyses intended to produce estimates representative of the HRS target population must use the appropriate weight variables from the Tracker Weights File. Analyses that do not apply the appropriate weights may produce estimates that are not representative of the target population and could lead to incorrect conclusions.

When the 2022 Tracker Weights File, Version 1 was released, it included weights for previously released cases and 2022 panel cases. Weights for the 2022 new cohort (EGenX) were still under development and were not included in this version. Analysts planning to produce estimates representative of the HRS target populations using Tracker Weights File Version 1 should therefore exclude EGenX respondents, who can be identified in the Tracker file by STUDY = 71. EGenX weights will be included in a future release of the Tracker Weights File. Researchers should consult the Tracker Weights File data description for information about the available weights, their appropriate uses, and instructions for merging the weights with the analytic data.

Researchers can use the weights by merging the Tracker Weights File with the corresponding Tracker data using HHID and PN. After merging, verify that the merge was completed correctly and that each analytic record has the appropriate weight, and then specify the selected weight in the statistical analysis.

The SAS, STATA, and SPSS code to merge the Tracker and Tracker Weights files is provided below.

Merging the Tracker file with the Tracker Weights File by HHID and PN

SAS

libname trk 'file path where the datasets are located on your computer';

/\*Sort each file by HHID and PN\*/

proc sort data=trk.trk2022tr\_r out=work.trk; 

 by HHID PN;

 proc sort data=trk.wgts2022tr\_r out=work.trkwgt; 

 by HHID PN;

  /\*Merge the two files to create a merged file called trkwgtmerged\_r \*/

data trk.trkwgtmerged\_r; 

  merge work.trk (in=a) work.trkwgt (in=b);

  by HHID PN;

run;

STATA

\#delimit;

local Tracker "file path where the Tracker file data is located on your computer";  
local Trackwgt "file path where the Tracker Weights file is located on your computer";  
local WorkDir "file path where you will store the log file and merged data";

log using "\`WorkDir'\\Trkwgtmerged.log", replace;

use "\`Tracker'\\TRK2022TR\_R.dta", clear;  
merge 1:1 HHID PN using "\`Trackwgt'\\WGTS2022TR\_R.dta";

log close \_all;

SPSS

GET FILE \= 'file path where the Tracker file data is located on your computer'.

\*Optimize size of string variables.  
ALTER TYPE ALL(A=AMIN).  
\*Sort cases by HHID and PN.  
SORT CASES BY HHID PN.  
\*Name the new dataset trk.  
DATASET NAME trk.  
EXECUTE.

GET FILE \= 'file path where the Tracker Weights file data is located on your computer'.  
\*Optimize size of string variables.  
ALTER TYPE ALL(A=AMIN).  
\*Sort cases by HHID and PN.  
SORT CASES BY HHID PN.  
\*Name the new dataset trkwgt.  
DATASET NAME trkwgt.  
EXECUTE.

\*Merge the two files matching cases by HHID and PN and name the resulting file trkwgtmerged.

MATCH FILES   
    /FILE='trk'  
    /TABLE='trkwgt'  
    /BY HHID PN.  
DATASET NAME trkwgtmerged.  
EXECUTE.