The CLSA was launched in 2010 as a strategic initiative of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). More than 50,000 people from across Canada have now been recruited and have all completed the baseline data collection, making it the most comprehensive study of aging ever undertaken in Canada.
The CLSA will follow participants for 20 years, revisiting them once every three years to carry out complete data collection, and touching base with them at regular intervals to maintain contact and engagement with the study. Participants, including residents from all 10 provinces, were aged 45 to 85 at recruitment. The first follow-up interviews are scheduled to begin in early July.
Taking an integrative approach, the CLSA is examining aging through a number of different lenses. Study investigators will collect a wide range of information about the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people's lives.
The CLSA data and biological samples provided by study participants will be available to researchers as well as policy makers to conduct research which will improve understanding of the aging process and answer questions of how we age, and ultimately promote healthy aging for all.
More than 160 researchers from 26 Canadian universities with expertise in biology, genetics, clinical research, social sciences, economics, epidemiology and population health are involved in the CLSA. The CLSA also employs over 250 people across Canada to support study implementation and data collection.
The CIHR recently renewed its investment in the CLSA, contributing $41.6 million for the next five years of the study, and bringing the total Government of Canada investment in the CLSA to $75.1M.
The CLSA collects data at two levels: through telephone interviews only, and through in-home interviews followed by visits to specially equipped data collection sites.
Telephone interviews
- 21,241 participants
- Sixty-minute telephone interview conducted every three years
- Questions about health and well-being, including physical, social and emotional functioning, lifestyle and behaviours, as well as the onset of health conditions and diseases
At-home interviews and data collection site visits
- 30,000 participants
- Sixty minute in-home interview conducted every three years with equivalent content to the telephone interview
- 2 ½ - 3 hour visit, every 3 years, to one of 11 data collection sites across the country: Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Halifax and St. John's
- At data collection sites, participants undergo cognitive and physical assessments, including height and weight measurements, vision and hearing tests, blood pressure and cardiovascular measures along with a bone density scan and strength and balance tests
- Blood and urine samples are also collected
