[The Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP)].

The Socioeconomic panel (SOEP) is currently the largest and longest running multidisciplinary longitudinal study in Germany. The first survey wave was completed in West Germany in 1984 and the study was expanded to include East Germany in June 1990. Every year since 1984 in West Germany and since 1990 in East Germany as well, a survey institute commissioned by the SOEP study has conducted personal oral interviews with more than 20,000 people in over 10,000 households. Although the SOEP does not contain any diagnostic information aside from grip strength for the evaluation of health status, instead using self-reported or proxy-reported indicators, it offers a dataset that is almost unparalleled in its ability to address a diverse range of topics with both objective and subjective indicators. Given the study's prospective longitudinal design, it is also outstandingly suited to controlling and correcting problems of selection that commonly arise in special samples (such as the Berlin Aging Study II). Covering a period of over 25 years, the SOEP also offers a number of possibilities for the analysis of the "natural experiments" that arise through changes in legislation. The SOEP's representative subsamples provide the basis for generalized conclusions about the total population living in private households and its migration samples also make an independent contribution for this population group. The numerous SOEP-based studies being published in the field of health sciences, most of which are currently concentrated around topics of health inequality and health economics, demonstrate the importance of this freely available research database for secondary analysis. Recent improvements in the survey concept will allow the SOEP to be used to an increased degree for analyses in the fields of public health and epidemiology.