The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) started in 1972. High school students from the senior class of 1972 across the nation—including you!—participated in this research project. They shared their school experiences, beliefs, and plans for the near and more distant future. In a series of surveys in the 1970s and 1980s, they talked about entering the labor market, going to college, serving in the military, starting families, moving around the country, and more.
Members of our research team will be reaching out to you with more information about participating in the next NLS-72 follow-up study in 2025! We hope you will be joining us for this exciting new chapter by following the three easy steps below.
Next Steps
Step 1
Visit the “Confirm My Eligibility” page to confirm you are eligible to participate in the study and to update your information.
Step 2
Once we confirm your eligibility, a member of our study team will reach out to you to schedule your interview. You’ll be able to schedule the interview at a time of your choice that’s convenient for you.
Step 3
NLS-72 participants will be scientifically selected for either an in-home interview or a phone interview. Interviewers will complete a survey, including measures of your cognition, and in-home interview participants will be asked to complete some physical measures. Everyone will be asked to participate in some follow-up health measures, like providing a blood sample, and receive a financial incentive as a thank you for their time.
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People who participated in NLS-72 are now in their late 60s and early 70s, a new and interesting phase of life. This next follow-up of the study focuses—for the first time—on health and well-being.
If you are selected for an in-home interview, a trained interviewer will come to your home to conduct a survey, an assessment of how you think and remember things, and a variety of different health measures like height, weight, and blood pressure.
If you are selected for a phone interview, a trained interviewer will conduct a survey, including an assessment of how you think and remember things, over the phone.
NLS-72 participant data have been used to help researchers understand education’s impact on life’s transitions, from joining the workforce to starting a family. What’s unique about NLS-72 is that the study team has followed up with people throughout their lives, so information you’ve provided throughout the years has given valuable insight into the ways schooling affects career and life experiences. After this next follow-up, researchers will be able to link education, career, and life experience data to new physical and biological measures. This will provide key insights into aging and living healthy, happy lives into our 70s and beyond.
You are part of one of the longest running nationally representative studies to ever be conducted. You were scientifically selected to be part of this study in 1972, and you cannot be replaced by anyone else. You and your fellow members of NLS-72 are in a unique position to help researchers better understand how education and earlier life circumstances affect who experiences illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and who continues to enjoy healthy, happy lives into their 70s and beyond. You can help us learn what early life factors protect against dementia and other health problems before they start.
With funding from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the United States National Institutes of Health, we hope to build a more complete story of your health. Combining your educational history, life experiences, and biology, researchers will be able to better understand what factors promote health and wellbeing later in life. To do this, we are excited to share that we will be adding new and important health measures into the NLS-72 follow-up study!
If you have questions about the confidentiality and privacy of your data, please visit the Privacy page and the Q&A page to learn more about the security measures in place to protect your privacy.