The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a nationally representative

longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of obs ...

of the population of Ireland aged 50 and above. TILDA aims to understand the health, social and financial circumstances of the older Irish population and how these factors interact. The study is led by

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(TCD) in collaboration with a majority of the other principal academic institutions in Ireland. A wide range of experts from many disciplines have been involved from the outset in the development and execution of this study.

Study design

The respondents for the TILDA study were derived from a nationally representative study of the population of Ireland aged 50 years and over. 8500 people were interviewed for Wave 1 of the study. This involved a Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI), a

Health Assessment A health assessment is a plan of care that identifies the specific needs of a person and how those needs will be addressed by the healthcare system or skilled nursing facility. Health assessment is the evaluation of the health status by performin ...

and a Self Completion Questionnaire. The Health Assessment involved

cognitive Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

gait Gait is the pattern of movement of the limbs of animals, including humans, during locomotion over a solid substrate. Most animals use a variety of gaits, selecting gait based on speed, terrain, the need to maneuver, and energetic efficiency. Di ...

and

cardiovascular The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

tests, as well as procedure to measure

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

. This Health Assessment was carried out in TILDA health centres in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

. A health assessment will be performed in Waves 1, 3 and 5. The CAPI and the SCQ will be performed in all waves.

Data collection

The first wave of data collection was conducted between October 2009 and July 2011. The second wave of data collection began in January 2012, and was scheduled to be completed in December 2012.

Related studies

TILDA is designed to maximise comparability with other well-established international longitudinal studies, in particular

Health and Retirement Study The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of Americans over age 50 conducted by the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor ...

(HRS) in the US, the

Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks. In seven survey waves to date, SHARE has conduc ...

(SHARE), and the

English Longitudinal Study of Ageing The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is a longitudinal study that collects multidisciplinary data from a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older to look at all aspects of aging in England. The study started in ...

(ELSA), and thereby to facilitate cross-country comparisons. *

(ELSA) *

(HRS) in the United States *

(SHARE)

Study design

Data collection

Related studies

References

External links