University of Manitoba to play key role in the largest study of aging ever undertaken in Canada

With the opening of a new research site at Deer Lodge Centre this afternoon, Manitobans are now set to play a key role in a new and staggeringly ambitious national study of aging.

This afternoon, the University of Manitoba, Deer Lodge Centre, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) cut the ribbon to the Data Collection Site for the CLSA in Winnipeg.

Across the country, the CLSA will follow 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 for 20 years. The long-term study will collect information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people’s lives as they age.

Dr. Verena Menec, Lead site investigator for the CLSA in Manitoba

“More than 4,400 people from Manitoba will take part in this landmark study of aging, including 3,000 who will participate in in-depth data collection at the Deer Lodge Centre,” said Verena Menec, community health sciences and director of the Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba, and lead site investigator for the CLSA in Manitoba. “With the help of Manitobans, we will be able to better understand the aging process and the factors that shape healthy aging. This knowledge will lead to long-term benefits in ensuring Canadians age well.”

Participation in the CLSA involves two different groups. Some people will participate in telephone interviews, while others will take part in a home interview and a visit to a Data Collection Site at the Deer Lodge Centre.

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 eligible to take part, but only if they are contacted by the research team. It is not possible to sign-up for the CLSA.

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

For those who are part of the in-person component of the study and visit a Data Collection Site, 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. With this group, interviews and data collection visits take place every three years; with a follow-up call midway between to maintain contact.

“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 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 investigators Christina Wolfson of McGill University and Susan Kirkland of Dalhousie 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. In Manitoba, additional funding support has been provided by the Province of Manitoba Research Innovation Fund and the University of Manitoba.