New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NZLSA)

The Health Work and Retirement Study (HWR) is a longitudinal study of ageing, funded by Health Research Council. In 2008 the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology funded the establishment of the New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NZLSA) as a nationally representative longitudinal study of health and ageing. It aims to identify the factors that contribute to positive ageing in New Zealand and provide internationally comparable data on health and ageing indicators. Over 1,000 additional participants were invited to join our original HWR group to form a representative sample of 4,000 community-dwelling adults aged 50-84 years. These participants were surveyed by postal questionnaire in 2010 and sub-groups participated in face-to-face interviews and in-depth qualitative projects.

National longitudinal studies of health and ageing have been established in North America, Europe and Asia in an effort to identify the factors contributing to successful ageing within each member country, and to compare health and ageing data between countries to identify international trends. The understandings gained from the NZLSA project will contribute to these international goals and to the government’s Positive Ageing Strategy. Findings also have immediate relevance to researchers and policy makers in New Zealand.

The research team comprises researchers: from Massey University, Associate Professor Fiona Alpass and Associate Professor Christine Stephens; from the Family Centre Policy Research Unit in Wellington, Dr Peter King and Mr Charles Waldegrave; from Otago University in Christchurch Dr Sally Keeling (not shown in the photo); and research officers Dr Andy Towers and Mr Brendan Stevenson.

In April this year, NZLSA researchers will conduct a fourth postal survey and second round of face-to-face interviews. A sample of findings from the data collected so far are included in the following Gerontology Research section.