Personality & Total Health (PATH) Through Life

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

Types General population-based cohort
Participant Types No diagnosis
Countries Australia
Genders Male and Female
Sample sizes 5,000 to 9,999
Ages 20 to 39|40 to 59|60 to 100
Brain related measures Behaviour|Cognitive function|Mental health|Neurological
Funtional rating Individual physiological|Individual psychological
Anthropometric Blood pressure|Height|Waist circumference|Weight
Physical Cardiovascular|Hearing and Vision|Musculoskeletal|Reproductive|Respiratory
Biological samples Blood|Other
Genotyping Gene screening
Brain imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Brain banking
Lifestyle Alcohol|Dietary habits|Physical activity|Smoking
Socio-economic Education|Ethnic group|Family circumstances|Housing and accommodation|Income and finances|Informal support|Marital status|Occupation and employment|Unpaid care
Health service utilisation Formal health and social care service utilisation including private care
Institute names The Australian National University
Current Sample Sizes 5,000 to 9,999

age at recruitment >20
last updated
recruitment period 1999
estimated current sample size number value 4737
cohort acronym PATH
start date 1999
pi Professor Kaarin Anstey
website http://crahw.anu.edu.au/research/projects/personality-total-health-path-through-life
contact details Centre for Research on Ageing, Health & Wellbeing
The Australian National University
Florey, Building 54, Mills Road, Acton
ACT 2601 Australia
abstract  PATH is a longitudinal cohort of 7,485 participants of different ages (over 20) sampled from the electoral roll. To investigate the course of depression and anxiety, substance use, and cognitive ability with age including the identification of risk and protective factors.
funders  National Health and Medical Research Council
contact email [email protected]
contact phone number +61 2 6125 8410
estimated current sample size 0 to 4,999
sample sizes 75000