Venous Blood-Based Biomarkers in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study: Rationale, Design, and Results From the 2015 Wave

TLDR

Blood biomarkers are essential for assessing older adults’ health, yet collecting them in large developing countries is challenging; CHARLS is among the first national surveys in China to include such biomarkers. The study aims to describe the sample collection, transportation, storage, and analysis procedures and provide basic statistics. In 2015, 13,013 CHARLS respondents across 150 counties donated whole blood, which was processed, transported, stored, and assayed for a range of indicators.

Abstract

Abstract Blood biomarkers provide critical information about the health of older populations, especially in large developing countries where self-reports of health are often inaccurate due to lack of access to health care. However, it is very difficult to collect blood samples in representative population surveys in such countries. The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), a nationally representative study of middle-aged and older Chinese, represents one of the first efforts to include blood biomarkers in a nationally representative survey of China. In the 2015 wave of CHARLS, 13,013 respondents located in 150 counties around China donated whole blood, which was assayed on a range of indicators. Here we describe the process of the sample collection, transportation, storage, and analysis and present basic statistics.