News from the WHI Study

On September 30th, the WHI CCC published a new release of the WHI investigator datasets, which include data through March 6, 2021. Please review the current WHI Data Preparation and Use document and WHI data dictionaries for additional details. Data are available to download with an approved Data Use Agreement; learn about applying for access to utilize WHI data.

Changes in the latest full release (Data as of March 6, 2021; Released September 30, 2021)

Website Updates

• Data file categories on our website (WHI Data Dictionaries) have been reorganized to make finding data dictionaries for investigator datasets easier and more intuitive.
• With approved data access, it is no longer necessary to visit the WHI SharePoint site to download investigator datasets. Data users have two options to download data:
  • Click on individual download icons in each row on the data dictionaries page to download a single dataset; or
  • Click on the “Download All Data” option below the datasets table to download all investigator data (file size, ~1GB).

In both cases, users will still be asked to provide their WHI username and password through a pop-up dialog box; the login process is identical to that for SharePoint, but only needs to be performed once per session.

New Datasets

• Form 151B – Activities of Daily Life (f151b_ctos_inv) – this questionnaire, along with Form 151A (not yet implemented), replaces Form 151 for most participants after this release. It includes constructed variables using standard scales for daily activity, optimism, life events, purpose, personal growth and depression. See below for additional information on the F151 dataset.
• Supplemental Questionnaire Response Status (supp_form_status) – this data release includes a new file containing denominator variables for Forms 155-159 to aid in determining which participants were eligible for the corresponding form.

Updated Datasets

• All outcomes and Extension Study follow-up datasets are updated through March 6, 2021.
• Additional specimen test results have been added to the Specimen Results Descriptions and to the four “spec-“ data files in the Specimen Results category.
• Aging (survival) variables (outc_aging_ctos_inv) – additional variables for survival to age 80 have been added.
• Extension Study 2, Self Reported outcome files (outc_self_x2_src_inv and outc_self_x2_mrc_inv) – moderate/severe memory problems and Alzheimer’s were separated on version 13 of Form 33. The F33ALZHEIMERS variable has been corrected to include report of both moderate/severe memory problems and Alzheimer’s, consistent with previous versions of Form 33.
• Demographics and Study Membership (dem_ctos_inv) – a new DbGap consent field has been added; WHI Extension Membership flags have been moved to this file and the WHI Extension Membership file has been dropped.
• Form 41 Imputed Race and Ethnicity (f41_imputed_ctos_inv) – the category “Yes, unspecified Spanish/Hispanic/Latina” was added to the ETHNICITY_IMPUTED variable. A new variable UNSPECASIAN_IMPUTED was also added. See the dataset documentation for details.
• Form 151 (f151_ctos_inv) – Form 151 is currently being used instead of Form 151B (and in the future, Form 151A) when a proxy is completing the annual forms. Analyses using the set of variables common to both forms need to include the variables from both dataset