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URL: http://www.flinders.edu.au/sabs/fcas/alsa/alsa_home.cfm

Proper Citation: ALSA - The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (RRID:SCR_013146)

Description: The general purpose of ALSA is to examine how social, biomedical, psychological, economic, and environmental factors are associated with age-related changes in the health and wellbeing of persons aged 70 years and older. 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, with emphasis given to the effects of social and economic factors on morbidity, disability, acute and long-term care service use, and mortality. The study was designed to have common instrumentation with US studies. ALSA collected data from a random, stratified sample of all persons (both community and institution-dwelling) aged 70 years and older living in the metropolitan area of Adelaide, South Australia, using the State Electoral Database as the sampling frame. Spouses aged 65 and older and other household members aged 70 years and older also were invited to participate. The initial baseline data collection for ALSA began in September 1992 and was completed in March 1993. In the first wave, personal interviews were carried out 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. Respondents were recontacted by telephone a year after initial interview (wave 2). The third wave of the study began in September 1994 and involved a complete reassessment, with a total of 1,679 interviews and 1,423 clinical assessments. To date, eleven waves of data have been collected, with the latest collection in May 2010, from 168 participants. Six of these waves were conducted via face-to-face interviews and clinical assessments, and five were telephone interviews. Future waves are planned, however are dependent on grant funding. Ancillary data collection has been ongoing since the initiation of the study, e.g., from secondary providers. 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 about the respondent''s health status, history of services received, medication use, referrals to specialists, and current services provided. Baseline Sample Size: 2087 Dates of Study: 1992����������2010 (potentially ongoing) Study Features: * Longitudinal * International * Anthropometric Measures * Biospecimens Waves 1-5 (ICPSR), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/06707 Wave 6 (ICPSR), http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/03679

Abbreviations: ALSA

Synonyms: Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ALSA), Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging, ALSA - The Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging, Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA)

Resource Type: material resource, biomaterial supply resource