With the proportion of seniors steadily increasing in Western Canada, Albertans are set to play a key role in a new national study of aging getting underway at the University of Calgary.

Dr. David Hogan

Across the country, 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 Calgary, will collect information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people’s lives as they age.

“We are inviting approximately 5,000 people from Alberta to take part in this landmark study,” said Dr. David Hogan, a professor and lead site investigator for the CLSA at the University of Calgary and the Brenda Strafford Foundation Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University.

“By investing their time, participants will help researchers in Alberta and from across the country better understand the aging process. This will lead to benefits down the road in ensuring Albertans and Canadians age well.”

Participation in the CLSA involves two different groups. Some people will be followed by telephone interviews, while others will take part in a home interview and a visit to a data collection site at the Heritage Medical Research Clinic of the Calgary Centre for Clinical Research.

This spring, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging began to call randomly selected residents in Calgary and from across the province inviting them to participate in the study. Information packages are mailed to interested respondents. 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 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. With this group, 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, changing 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).

Alberta is aging now that baby boomers are entering their retirement years. In 2010, Statistics Canada reported that 398,900 people in Alberta were aged 65 or older. By 2031, that number is expected to more than double to 940,700. Approximately one in five Albertans will then be 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 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.