Following the lives of 50,000 Canadians

The Dalhouie site of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), a national, long-term study of health and the aging process, has officially opened its doors.

The CLSA collects information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle, and economic aspects of people’s lives as they get older.

The data collected as part of the CLSA will form a national research database that’ll be used by scientists and policy makers across the country. The information will lead to new insights and better understanding of what it means to age well.

The CLSA is one of the largest, most comprehensive studies of its kind in the world.

“The CLSA is one of the few longitudinal studies worldwide that focuses on the process of aging in a way that incorporates people’s social and psychological health with clinical and genetic factors,” says Dr. Susan Kirkland, co-principal investigator of the CLSA and professor of Community Health & Epidemiology program and Medicine at Dalhousie Medical School.

1,400 Nova Scotians already recruited

Over the next 20 years, 50,000 men and women, aged 45 to 85, will be followed as part of the study. Almost 19,000 participants — including more than 1,400 Nova Scotians — have been recruited so far through random selection. Some participants take part in at-home interviews and visit data collection sites for physical assessments. Others provide information through telephone interviews.

“This is a study on aging, not just the aged. The focus is on healthy and successful aging and not just disease and disability processes,” says Dr. Kirkland. “The CLSA will be able to move beyond merely describing change over time to actually studying the dynamic determinants of change within and between individuals over time.”

“The CLSA holds the potential not only to inform disease and longevity outcomes, but also to contribute to informed decision making with respect to health-care delivery, independent living and autonomy for seniors, productivity and quality of life, health promotion, and the design of population and public health interventions.”

The CLSA is a collaborative project involving more than 160 researchers at 26 institutions across Canada. It includes 11 data collection sites, four telephone interview centres, and three data analysis facilities across Canada. Dalhousie houses a data collection site and a computer-assisted telephone interviewing centre.