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The HELIAD is a population-based, multidisciplinary, collaborative study designed to estimate the prevalence and incidence of AD, other dementias, mild cognitive impairment, and other neuropsychiatric conditions of aging in the Greek population and to investigate associations between nutrition and cognitive dysfunction/age-related neuropsychiatric diseases in this Mediterranean population.

The participants in the HELIAD study were selected through random sampling from community-dwelling individuals over the age of 65 years in the cities of Larissa (located in the province of Thessaly in Central Greece and Marousi (located within the Athens Metropolitan area). The targeted sample of enrolled participants comprised approximately 2,500 individuals. No weighting or stratified sampling (according to age, gender, or education) was performed. Follow-ups with face-to-face interviews at ~3 year intervals.

Last update – 01/02/2017

The HCS is a population-based cohort study established to assess factors important in the health, well-being, social functioning and economic consequences of ageing. The participants included community-dwelling men and women aged 55-85 years of age who reside in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. They were randomly selected from the NSW State electoral roll and contacted between December 2004 and December 2007.

The participants’ study data was collected through self-report postal questionnaires which covered a wide range of variables but also linked with local and national health information databases and hospital records. These provided follow-up on use of prescription medication, health service utilization and hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality. There was also a baseline clinic visit which measured a wide variety of parameters including hearing, vision, smell, balance, cognition, and lung function. Medications and diagnoses have been collected not only at baseline but also at periodic intervals during follow-up.

Last update – 31/01/2017

The main objective of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) is to provide comprehensive longitudinal evidence base on health, social and economic wellbeing of elderly population in India.

LASI main wave’s covers 30 states and 6 union territories of India covering a panel sample size of 60,250 elderly persons aged 45 years and above. The long-term goal of LASI is to continue this survey for the next 25 years with the first wave planned in the year 2016-17 and second wave in 2018-19. LASI aims to obtain all the indicators for each of the 30 states and 6 union territories. In addition, LASI aims at obtaining indicators for each of the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.

Last update – 10/02/2017

The first wave of the MIDUS study collected survey data from a total of 7,108 participants. The baseline sample was comprised of individuals from four subsamples:

a national RDD (random digit dialing) sample (n=3,487);
oversamples from five metropolitan areas in the U.S. (n=757)
siblings of individuals from the RDD sample (n=950); and (4) a national RDD sample of twin pairs (n=1,914).

All eligible participants were non-institutionalized, English-speaking adults in the coterminous United States, aged 25 to 74. Data from the above samples were collected primarily in 1995/96.

Last update – 03/02/2017

The Belgian Ageing Studies project (BAS) was developed by researchers at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and University College Ghent (Hogeschool Gent). Established in the early 2000s, the BAS team engages in the scientific study of the social aspects of ageing.

The aim of the research programme of the Belgian Ageing Studies is to:

Provide an instrument to measure the living conditions and quality of life of older people in Belgian municipalities.
Promote evidence-based policy at the local level by providing input and mobilizing knowledge for planning and inclusive policy programmes.
Support the process of creating age-friendly communities.
Examine trends in particular municipalities by conducting follow-up studies.

Last update – 28/02/2017

The British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) is a prospective study in middle-aged men drawn from general practices in 24 British towns, 7,735 men were recruited in 1978-1980. It was set up to determine the factors responsible for the considerable variation in coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke in Great Britain. It also seeks to determine the causes of these conditions in order to provide a rational basis for recommendations towards their prevention.

Following the collection of baseline date in 1978-80 the cohort has been followed up through the participants, two-yearly GP Record Reviews, and the Office of Population and Census Surveys. Participants have been re-contacted through questionnaires or assessment in 1983-85, 1992, 1996, 1998-2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010-2012, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Last update – 21/02/2017

GENDER is a study of unlike-sex twin pairs born between 1906 and 1925 (Gold et al., 2002). A survey concerning health and health behavior was mailed in 1994 with responses from 1,210 twins from 605 pairs where both responded. Mean age at baseline questionnaire assessment was 74.43 (SD 4.28) and all are Caucasians. A baseline in-person evaluation of 498 twins from 249 pairs between 70 and 80 years of age was undertaken between 1995 and 1997, and included an interview and tests of cognitive and physical functioning. Two additional in-person waves followed at 4-year intervals. Finally, a second survey was mailed in 2007 to all living twins who participated in the first mailed survey.

Last update – 04/03/2017

The Thai Cohort Study was established in 2005 in order to study the dynamics, drivers and impacts of the population transition from high maternal and child mortality and infectious disease to low mortality and chronic disease. We call this the ‘health-risk transition’ – synchronised change in causal risks and health outcomes affecting whole populations, with Thailand being a good example in the SE Asia region. This transition can be divided into overlapping or interacting component transitions such as the nutrition transition, the health system transition, sexual transition, the transport transition, the (formal) work transition and the environment transition (including urbanisation). As our understanding improves we are better able to inform governments about changing health service demands and changing prevention needs — with universal
health insurance and Thai obesity research being two prominent examples of national response.

Cohort members are distance-learning students who resided nationwide and were enrolled at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University when they responded to a 20-page baseline questionnaire in 2005 (n= 87,151). A four and eight year follow-up were conducted with a response rate of approximately 70% at each follow-up (n=60,569 in 2009 and n=42,785 in 2013). At 2005 baseline, median age was 29 years, roughly half the sample were females, and approximately half were urban residents.

For mortality data linkage, all cohort members have provided their Citizen ID number which was matched with death records from the Thai Ministry of Interior and subsequently linked with causes of death from the Ministry of Public Health. Up until November 2016, there were a total of 1,401 deaths among the Thai Cohort Study participants.

Last update: 22/01/2017

The major goals of this prospective cohort study of a randomly selected community sample are to: establish the prevalence and genetic, metabolic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the general population of the city of Lausanne; assess the mechanisms of the association between psychiatric disorders and CVRF / CVD.
Additional scientific questions focus on:

the identification of risk factors for the incidence and course of CVRF and psychiatric disorders;
the identification of risk factors for cognitive impairment;
the testing of novel biological marker candidates and the incidence or course of CVRF/CVD or psychiatric disorders;
the testing of associations between brain anatomy patterns and CVRF and psychiatric disorders.

Last update: 19/12/2016

The PATH Through Life project is a 20 year longitudinal cohort study of 7,485 young (aged 20-24 at baseline), midlife (aged 40-44 at baseline) and older (aged 60-64 at baseline) adults randomly sampled from the electoral roll of the Australian Capital Territory and the nearby city of Queanbeyan.
The original aims of the project are outlined below.

To delineate the course of depression, anxiety, substance use and cognitive ability with increasing age across the adult life span.
To identify environmental risk, genetic risk and protective factors influencing individual differences in the course of these characteristics.
To investigate interrelationships over time between the three domains of: depression and anxiety, substance use, and cognitive ability and dementia.
Data collection has occurred at four intervals (4 waves), at approximately four year intervals with a good participant retention rate. The fifth wave of data collection is commencing in 2017.
Several design features of the PATH project contribute to its unique standing among population based longitudinal cohort studies.
Obtaining measures of genetic, biological (including MRI), psychosocial and lifestyle risk and protective factors for mental health and wellbeing.
Use of a narrow age cohort design with longitudinal follow ups as an optimal means of separating age and cohort effects.
Assessment of participants across the full adult lifespan, permitting investigation of developmentally significant, but under studied periods such as midlife
Recruitment and follow up of a young-old population, providing important pre-clinical data for studying the development of age related changes in memory and cognition.

Last update – 12/01/2017