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Transitions and Old Age Potential - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wave

Transitions and Old Age Potential: Übergänge Und Alternspotenziale (TOP)

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT07301112
Acronym
TOP
Enrollment
5002
Registered
2025-12-24
Start date
2013-01-16
Completion date
2019-12-15
Last updated
2025-12-24

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Elderly, Healthy Adults, Retirement

Keywords

longitudinal, cohort study

Brief summary

With the third wave of the Transitions and Old Age Potential (TOP) study, the longitudinal study of initially 5,002 individuals was completed in 2019. Initial findings were published in 2020 through a brochure, policy brief, and methodological report, and presented publicly. The third wave produced two datasets: a panel of 1,561 individuals surveyed across all three waves (2013, 2015/16, 2019) and a couple datasets with 576 complete interviews. Additional data sources such as DEAS, FWS, and SHARE complement the analyses. In 2021, efforts centered on preparing scientific articles for peer-reviewed journals and archiving the third wave at GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, concluding the study that ran from 2011 to 2021. For further information, see: https://search.gesis.org/research\_data/ZA6597 and https://doi.org/10.4232/1.13845

Detailed description

Content and Objectives In 2019, the third wave of the study Transitions and Old Age Potential (TOP) was completed. In addition to the repeated interviews of some of those who had already participated in the study in previous waves, partners were also interviewed. The aim of this supplementary survey was to gain insights into retirement transition in a couple of contexts, focusing on the phenomenon of joint retirement. The initial results were published in June 2020 in the form of a brochure and a policy brief and presented at a press conference. Another publication was the methodological report on the third wave in German and English. In 2021, the focus was on the final editing and submission of the scientific articles from TOP in peer-reviewed journals. The archiving of the third wave of TOP as a scientific use file at GESIS was planned for October 2021. This step concluded the TOP study. Data and Methods Within the framework of the third wave of the TOP study, 1,561 persons could be interviewed for the second time. Regarding the partners of these persons, a gross sample of 832 persons resulted, after completion of the last address and panel maintenance of the year 2017/2018. After completion of the field phase of the third wave, 576 complete interviews were available at the couple level. The TOP study thus comprised of two data sets after the completion of the third wave: the panel data set comprised the persons who had participated in the study on all three survey dates (2013, 2015/2016 and 2019) (1,561 persons) as well as the couple sample with the information provided by the anchors (with current partner from the third survey wave) and the partners from 2019 (576 couple interviews). In addition to the data from TOP, other studies are also used for the scientific articles, such as the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), the German Volunteer Survey (FWS) and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Duration 01/2011-12/2021 Selected Publications see https://search.gesis.org/research\_data/ZA6597

Interventions

None listed

Sponsors

Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB)
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI)
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
55 Years to 70 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* aged 55-70 * telephone * german language

Exclusion criteria

* illiterate * no consent

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Lonelinessyear 2019Loneliness was assessed at T3 using three items from the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA-Loneliness Scale) in its short form, based on four-point Likert scales. The loneliness index was calculated as the mean value of the three items with higher means indicating greater loneliness/worse outcome: (0 =never-3=often)
Retirementyears 2013, 2015/2016 and 2019Retirement was assessed at T1 by asking participants whether they received a pension or not, with responses transformed into a binary pension/retirement variable (1=yes, 2=no).
Physical Activity (PA)years 2013, 2015/2016 and 2019PA was determined by asking participants how often (\<1, 1-2, 3-4, 5+ times per week) they were physically active for more than 30 minutes at T1, T2, and T3.

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026