The complex sample design requires that the selection probabilities and the field implementation be accounted for in estimating population parameters. The data set contains weights to compensate for differential probabilities of selection and response rates among demographic groups. Analysts should use weights in constructing estimates from the survey and account for the complex sample design in estimating standard errors for survey estimates.

Although the referents of the term social capital merit sustained inquiry, the term impedes understanding because of the historical association of the word capital with economic discourse. As a result of this association, applying the term social capital to civic engagement blurs crucial analytic distinctions. Moreover, there are important ideological consequences to considering things such as bowling leagues to be a form of capital and urging citizens to become social capitalists. The term social capacity, the authors argue, provides the same heuristic benefits as the term social capital without extending illusory promises of theoretical parsimony with the financial/human/social capital trinity.

The National Opinion Research Center, led by a team of investigators at the University of Chicago, conducted more than 3,000 in-person interviews with a nationally representative sample of adults aged 57-85 years. Data collection included in-person questionnaire items, an extensive array of biomeasures, and a postinterview self-administered questionnaire. The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) interview included the collection of 13 biomeasures: weight, waist circumference, height, blood pressure, smell, saliva collection, taste, a self-administered vaginal swab for female respondents, "Get Up and Go," distance vision, touch, oral mucosal transudate (Orasure) human immunodeficiency virus test, and blood spots. This article discusses the development of NSHAP's instruments and implementation of the study design. Measures, such as response and cooperation rates, are also provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the design and implementation.