CLSA completes recruitment at Surrey data collection site
Friday, February 28, 2014
The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) data collection site based at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus has relocated to its sister site at UBC, after reaching its target of 1,500 participants at the end of 2013.
The study will continue operations at UBC and is set to recruit another 1,500 Lower Mainland participants over the next 15 months.
Lars Knudsen, one of the final participants to visit the SFU Surrey site, celebrates the completion of recruitment at the site with staff.
The Surrey-based site was launched in July 2012 and collected extensive health-related data on men and women between the ages of 45-85 who reside in a 25-50 km radius of the campus.
In total the national study will collect data on 50,000 Canadians over a 20-year period. Its goal is to better understand aging in Canada, where an increasingly older population is living longer.
“The aim of the CLSA is to provide a research platform that will allow us to examine ways to improve the health of Canadians, by better understanding the processes and dimensions of aging over the life course of individuals,” says Andrew Wister, chair of SFU’s gerontology department and lead CLSA site investigator at SFU Surrey.
Lars Knudsen, one of the final participants at the SFU Surrey site, says taking part in the study was timely, as it came on the heels of significant lifestyle changes that included weight loss and a focus on improved physical and mental health.
Inspired by his father, who had cancer, Knudsen became a participant in the study, which will shed new light on various aspect of aging health. “He has always been a strong role model and I thought, ‘if he could help out in a small way, so can I’,” says the Langley resident.
SFU Surrey data collection site occupies a 1,100 sq ft cluster of lab and exam rooms in Podium 2. Site manager Heather Stewart says participants took part in extensive interviews at their homes and in the lab, followed by a series of physical and functional tests related to heart, lung and vascular functions, bone density, body composition, joint function, hearing and vision, strength, mobility and balance. The interviews and testing will be repeated every three years on the same participant cohort.
Participants also have the opportunity to provide blood and urine specimens. Combined with the wealth of survey and other test results collected, the CLSA creates a rich resource for cutting-edge ‘cell to society’ research on human aging as well as training opportunities for students, new researchers and clinicians, Stewart adds.
Andrew Wister, CLSA lead site investigator, SFU Surrey data collection site