Measuring health and economic status of older adults in developing countries.

Aging and health care are the emerging policy issues in the Third World. However, we currently do not have the data to address these issues because economic status and health have not been integrated into a single survey design. This article discusses the rationale for the principal features of an emerging new international survey design which includes integration of younger and older families; reliance on retrospective data; intensive measurement of economic status, health outcomes and utilization and intergenerational transfers; and the combination of a household and community survey.