With the proportion of seniors increasing rapidly in Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotians are set to play a key role in a new national study of aging getting underway at Dalhousie University.

Dr. Susan Kirkland

The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) will follow 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 for 20 years. The long-term study, which has a research site in Halifax, will collect information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people’s lives as they age.

“This is the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in Canada and it has been more than a decade in development,” said Susan Kirkland, co-principal investigator of the CLSA and a professor in the Departments of Community Health & Epidemiology and Medicine at Dalhousie University. “We are inviting 4,400 people from Nova Scotia to take part in this landmark study. With their help, we’ll be able to better understand the aging process and the factors that shape healthy aging. This knowledge will translate into improvements in health and quality of life for Canadians.”

Participation in the CLSA involves two different groups. Some people will be contacted for a telephone interview, while others will take part in a home interview and a visit to a data collection site on the Dalhousie University campus.

To ensure study enrolment is representative of the Canadian population, CLSA researchers are working with provincial health ministries to randomly select participants. People between the ages of 45 and 85 are being invited to take part.

“This month, roughly 6,600 information packages were mailed by the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness on behalf of the CLSA to residents,” said Kirkland. “We are now beginning to call interested respondents who have provided their consent to be contacted to seek their participation in the study. It’s a very exciting time for us.”

Study participants are asked questions about their health and well-being, including physical, social and emotional functioning, lifestyle and behaviours, as well as the onset of health conditions and diseases.

At data collection sites across the country, physical assessments are taken, including height and weight; vision and hearing tests; blood pressure and cardiovascular measures; a bone density scan and strength and balance tests. Participants also take part in memory tests. Interviews and data collection visits take place every three years, with a follow-up call midway between to maintain contact.

“By committing an hour for a telephone interview or a couple hours for a visit to a data collection site, participants will help to improve the health and well-being of current and future generations,” Kirkland said. “This study will not only advance our knowledge of aging, but has the potential to change the way people live and approach growing older.”

“The CLSA represents a unique platform that will be used by researchers from all disciplines and fields, and that has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of biological, psychological and social determinants of active and healthy aging for the benefit of all Canadians,” said Yves Joanette, scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA).

The demographics in Nova Scotia are changing now that baby boomers are entering their retirement years. In 2010, Statistics Canada reported that 151,800 people in Nova Scotia were aged 65 or older. By 2031, that number is expected to increase to 286,800, meaning that approximately one in four people will be age 65 or older.

The CLSA involves a team of more than 160 researchers and collaborators across the country, including lead principal investigator Parminder Raina of McMaster University and co-principal investigator Christina Wolfson of McGill University.

The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging is a strategic initiative of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Overall support for the study has been provided by the Government of Canada through the CIHR and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.