ACCESS Life Course Database: Upgrade and Expansion

Life course studies constitute an important research area for social- and health sciences. In Norway, studies that follow the same individuals over a longer period of time, have been relatively scarce. Through the ACCESS Upgrade infrastructure, researchers and students will gain access to updated and upgraded longitudinal life course data for more than 11,000 Norwegians born between 1922 and 1966.

 Life course studies constitute an important research area for social- and health sciences. In Norway, studies that follow the same individuals over a longer period of time, have been relatively scarce. 

Data from The Norwegian Life course, Ageing and Generation panel study (NorLAG) form the basis of this infrastructure. NorLAG combines survey data and with information from public registers addressing key life domains: health and health behaviour, work and retirement, family relations, leisure time, care and quality of life.

The data provide unique opportunities for tracing individuals through different life phases and for analysing role changes and life events over time. This way, ACCESS Upgrade will strengthen the foundation for empirical welfare research and provide an important tool for research that can feed into policy goals, such as active ageing, combating social inequalities across the life course, intergenerational solidarity and family-work balances.

The upgrade will ensure that researchers have access to data through new systems that are flexible, secure and user-friendly. The infrastructure will also establish meeting grounds where researchers, students and other stakeholders can come together and discuss topics of relevance for the infrastructure. 

Data access

The new portal for NorLAG data was launched January 27th 2020. With this launch, researchers and students have already gained access to both survey data from three waves of NorLAG data collections (2002, 2007 and 2017) and annual registerdata – halfway in the establishment phase of ACCESS Upgrade.

Access data through the portal (norlag.nsd.no). 

ACCESS Upgrade is hosted by NOVA at OsloMet - founder of the NorLAG study, and Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research.

Quality assurance

Main activities in the first half of the project were related to data management, quality assurance and design. Quality assurance will be ongoing throughout the rest of the establishment phase. In 2020, the main focus has been on documentation of the study and data, including evaluation, improvement and development of technical solutions in the portal.

The study and data have also been documented through a scientific publication in the renown (level 2) Journal of Epidemiology:  Cohort Profile: The Norwegian life course, ageing and generation study (NorLAG) (academic.oup.com).