Theme Areas
Population Research Strategies

Background information

The Population Research Strategies Theme Area is based at the Australian National University. In the Research School of Social Sciences, the Department of Demography is recognised internationally for its leadership in understanding the dynamics of population ageing and its Negotiating the Life Course Project. The National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, and the Centre for Mental Health Research, both add strengths in survey design and analysis. The Australian Social Sciences Data Archive (ASSDA) provides an outstanding base for storing and managing survey research data, including samples of older people. At the University of Canberra, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modeling (NATSEM) provides a data-based capacity to comprehensively assess and model the implications of an ageing Australia. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare provides a wealth of secondary data on older people and services, and provides internationally leading expertise on data linkage.

The Network includes the Principal Investigators of Australia's leading inter-disciplinary, longitudinal surveys that include older people. These researchers have been requested to make their valuable data available for further analyses, and will be encouraged to apply their expertise to designing a next generation of studies. These longitudinal databases include, for example, the Australian Longitudinal Survey on Ageing (ALSA), the Dubbo Longitudinal Survey of Ageing, the Household and Income Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, the Melbourne Longitudinal Studies in Healthy Ageing program (MELSHA), the Sydney Older Persons' Study (SOPS), the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (WHA), the Path Through Life studies of mental health, and the 45 And Up NSW cohort study.

The Theme Convener is Dr. Judith Healy (RegNet). The Co-Conveners are Dr Kaarin Anstey (Centre for Mental Health Research ANU), Dr Heather Booth (Demography ANU), Dr Emily Banks (Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health ANU), Dr Marc Budge (Medical School ANU), and Ms Ann Peut (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare).

This theme builds from strengths in understanding the fundamental population dynamics of ageing, including lengthening of the life span, and the effects of migration and birth rates as variables in population ageing amenable to policy influences. This core demographic strength, as well as social and medical sciences and epidemiological expertise, will be related to multidisciplinary life span studies and major longitudinal studies both at ANU and at other Universities.

This Theme Area will have three major components. The first of these is the Data Archive on Older Australians that offers storage, management and access to good data collections within the ANU Australian Social Science Data Archive. This component is managed by Dr Deborah Mitchell and the archivist on ageing is Stephen Gray. This central data archive will increase the efficiency of ageing research and the availability of quality data. It will encourage the principle of public domain databases, facilitate further analysis of existing data, provide technical assistance, and promote the future collection of comparable data based on common sampling frames and common instruments. The initial emphasis of the Archive will be to construct an inventory of age-related survey data already in Australian archives (many of which are not specific to older people); to add major Australian longitudinal surveys of ageing; and to enhance Australian access to international Archives on Ageing Data maintained at the University of Michigan with support from the US National Institute of Aging.

The second component will be to facilitate the collaborative inter-disciplinary analysis of existing Australian longitudinal data to address critical research questions set by the Theme Areas. The Network will fund careful reviews of existing longitudinal surveys, data file assembly, and expert statistical advice for users. Inter-disciplinary, longitudinal research is important because it can identify key factors that are amenable to intervention to achieve positive outcomes for ageing people, for example independence, productivity, mental competence and well-being. Influences on these outcomes can be explored in the areas of employment, family, and life style factors from late middle age onward as well as transitions involving retirement, wealth, family and health factors.

The third component of this Theme Area’s work will be to consider ways to build on existing and planned longitudinal studies in Australia particularly to illuminate the ageing 'trajectories' being set by Australia's large, post-war baby boomer generation. This generation will drive Australian ageing policies in relation to retirement incomes, independence, health costs and aged care. The Network will actively explore the possibilities of building international collaboration in conducting longitudinal research on this cohort. It also will actively explore the bio-psycho-social approaches that hold much promise for understanding processes of ageing and opportunities for interventions. The Network is beginning this work by reviewing the international literature to evaluate which questions have been answered in cohort studies of older populations and which remain to be answered that are of particular relevance to Australia.

Current activities

The Data Archive on Older Australians is underway. The Principal Investigators of surveys, and especially longitudinal surveys, that include significant numbers of older people, are being approached to lodge their databases with the Archive. This might involve lodging waves of data after initial analyses are completed, and might in some cases involve restrictions on access.

A workshop is planned for later in 2005 to focus on critical research questions amenable to the meta-analysis of existing databases. The aims are to extend analysis beyond a single dataset, and to add value by extending the use of expensive data collections.

A workshop is planned for mid 2006 that will build upon international collaborations and will also strengthen Australian methodological expertise in longitudinal research on ageing.