About the Study

Study progress

As at May 2008:

  • Over 100,000 individuals are enrolled in the Study
  • A group of 19 researchers from the Study was awarded $1.8 million over a five-year period, under the NHMRC Preventive Healthcare and Strengthening Australia’s Social and Economic Fabric Strategic Award. This grant (known as the SEEF grant) will fund researchers to use the 45 and Up Study to investigate social, economic and environmental factors in relation to health and ageing.
  • 25 applications to use data from the Study have been approved by the Study’s Scientific Advisory Committee. 9 projects have been funded and have been provided de-identified baseline questionnaire data from the first participants in the Study. Seven projects are awaiting outcomes of funding applications (for more information on research underway click here).
  • The first paper from the 45 and Up Study has been accepted for publication as a ‘Cohort Profile’ in the prestigious International Journal of Epidemiology. This paper outlines the background to the study, its methods and the characteristics of the first 36,645 participants (to view this paper click here).
  • The Study has received ethical approval for inclusion in the Master Linkage Key of the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), with this linkage completed for the first participants.
  • The 45 and Up Study has ethical approval from the University of NSW Human Research Ethics Committee, its primary ethics committee. The Study also has in principle ethical approval for future linkage with data from: the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing; the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; the Department of Veterans’ Affairs; NSW Health and the NSW Cancer Institute.  
  • The 45 and Up Study has involved more than 110 founding collaborating researchers, whose expertise has underpinned the design and conduct of research within the Study.
  • The Study governance and policy frameworks are established. An independent review of the Study undertaken after the first 18-months of operation by Professor Dallas English (Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, University of Melbourne) and Professor Michael Hobbs (School of Population Health, University of Western Australia) described the Study governance and management structures as exemplary.