The Contextual Data Resource (CDR) is a collection of user-friendly datasets that enable researchers to study the impact of place on health and well-being among older adults. Contextual factors such as neighborhood disadvantage, air pollution, and health care access and quality play an important role in facilitating or hindering older adults’ ability to lead healthy, active, independent, and engaged lives.

The Contextual Data Resource (CDR) includes measures representing seven key theoretical dimensions of the socioenvironmental context; socioeconomic/demographic structure, economic conditions, social stressors, health care, physical hazards, amenities, and the built environment. Measures are available at various levels of geography (e.g., census tract, county, metro area, state) and include proximity measures constructed using respondent geocoded address information (e.g., buffer density measures and distance measures). Currently measures are available for several years, spanning from 1979-2022. Measure availability varies by CDR data product, with some measures available on an annual basis and others available at fewer time points.

The potential to link this contextual data to aging surveys will increase opportunities to analyze prospective effects of environmental conditions on health and aging, the effects of residential mobility on aging-related outcomes, and the ways environments change around older adults as they age in place.