DataSet

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

ALSA

The sample for the Australian study was randomly generated from within the Adelaide Statistical Division using the State Electoral Database as the sampling frame. This database provided name, gender, date of birth, postal and residential address. The sample was stratified by gender and the age groups 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, and 85 and over. Both community- and institutional-dwelling individuals were included in the list of specified persons. An additional component was that spouses aged 65 and over of specified persons also were invited to participate, as were other household members aged 70 years and over. The initial baseline data collection for ALSO began in September 1992 and was completed in March 1993. Components of this wave included a comprehensive personal interview, conducted via Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI), a home-based assessment of physiological functions, self-completed questionnaires, and additional clinical studies. The average time of interview was approximately 2.5 hours. Personal interviews were carried out at this first wave for 2.087 participants, including 566 couples (that is, persons 70 years of age and over and their spouse, if 65 and over). Clinical assessments were obtained for 1,620 of the participants. After an interval of one year from the initial interview, respondents were re-contacted by telephone. These interviews lasted an average of 15 minutes, and included questions regarding changes in domicile, current health and functional status, new morbid conditions, changes in medication, major life events, general life satisfaction, and changes in economic circumstances. In Wave 2, 1,779 participants were re-interviewed. The third wave of the study began in September 1994. This phase was a complete re-assessment, with face-to-face interviews, clinical assessments, self-completed questionnaires, and other clinical and laboratory studies again carried out. CAPI was used in administration of the personal interview, which made it possible to pre-load selected prior information, thereby avoiding repetition of information divulged by the respondent at Wave 1. A separate, shorter, proxy instrument was developed and used in this third wave, which proved very successful in maintaining a high participation rate. A total of 1,679 interviews were carried out at Wave 3, and 1,423 clinical assessments were conducted. Data collection for the fourth wave began in November 1995 and was completed by the end of February 1996. Wave 4 is a short telephone interview similar to Wave 2. 1,504 interviews were completed. A fifth wave of interviews was conducted during February 1998 resulting in 1171 completed interviews. In addition to the primary data collection from respondents, ancillary data collection has been ongoing since the initiation of the study. Data have been collected from secondary providers, including Domiciliary Care and Rehabilitation Services, Meals on Wheels, and the Royal District Nursing Society. Lists of ALSA participants are compared biannually with the agencies' lists to determine the prevalence and incidence of receipt of services from these organizations. Another source of information has been the collection of data from the participants' General Practitioners. Each respondent's personal and medical practitioner gives a rating of overall health status, history of services received and current services provided.

Public Health Systems Research

70 years of age and older

The general purpose of this research is to gain further understanding of how social, biomedical, and environmental factors are associated with age-related changes in the health and well-being of persons aged 70 years and older. Emphasis is given to the effects of social and economic factors on morbidity, disability, acute and long term care service use, and mortality. The aim is to analyze the complex relationships between individual and social factors and changes in health status, health care needs and service utilization dimensions.

nlm/crs

Bibliography:Andrews, G., Cheok, F., & Carr, S. 1989. The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Australian Journal on Ageing 8, 31-35.Andrews, G. R., & Myers, G. C. (in press). The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing: A multidimensional prospective study of a 70 years and over population sample. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research. Andrews, G. R., Roder, D. M., & Myers, G. C. 1996. Co-morbidity as a determinant of physical function in an old/old population. Paper presented at the 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, USA. Luszcz, M. A., & Bryan, J. 1999. Toward understanding age-related memory loss in late adulthood. Gerontology 45, 2-9. van Doorn, C., & Kasl, S. V. 1998. Can parental longevity and self-rated life expectancy predict mortality in older persons? Results from an Australian cohort. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 53B(1), S28-S34. Woodbury, M., Parnell, A., & Andrews, G. 1995. The functional and health status of older Australian couples. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Los Angeles, USA.

ALSA has been designed to have common instrumentation with U.S. studies. The study collects data from a random, stratified sample of the 70 years and older persons living in the metropolitan area of Adelaide, South Australia. The entire population of older persons living in Adelaide is represented, since both community and institutional dwelling residents are included. Extensive analyses utilizing the longitudinal data will continue, and have been carried out in both Australia and the United States. Active groups of collaborators are analyzing data relating to ADL function, cognitive function, co-morbidity, diabetes, exercise and physical activity, family relationships and support, formal service use, hearing function, injuries and falls, mortality, social activities, social interactions between couples, and visual acuity.

Flinders University of South Australia

A sixth wave that will include complete re-assessment, with face-to-face interviews, clinical assessments, self-completed questionnaires, and other clinical and laboratory studies is planned to commence in October 2000.

PHSR

Data collection began in September 1992 and continued through 1998

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