TILDA

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a large-scale, population-representative, longitudinal study on ageing in Ireland, established in 2009. TILDA collects information on all aspects of health, economic and social circumstances from people aged 50 and over in a series of data collection waves once every two years. The assessments include home interviews, self-completion questionnaires and detailed health assessments that take place in TILDA’s designated health centre or in the homes of participants. TILDA is unique amongst longitudinal studies in the breadth of physical, mental health and cognitive measures collected. This data, together with the extensive social and economic data, makes TILDA one of the most comprehensive research studies of its kind both in Europe and internationally. It represents an unmatched resource for information on Ireland’s older population. TILDA is funded by the Department of Health with support from the Health Research Board; Science Foundation Ireland; The Atlantic Philanthropies; and Irish Life plc.

TILDA’s research activities are geared toward practical impact in national policy. Findings from the study have been cited in almost 100 policy documents in Ireland and internationally, and its ongoing research programme has produced almost 350 peer-reviewed articles and been the basis for over 50 reports and discussion papers. Study researchers contribute to teaching and course development in Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital.

TILDA actively collaborates with other international longitudinal studies, providing harmonised, publicly accessible datasets for comparison of outcomes across multiple countries. Visit TILDA’s website to view a range of our current research projects, read our publications or find out more about the methodologies involved in sampling and data collection.

This Gateway highlights HRB-funded outputs that have been published on the platform, either from TILDA researchers or based on analysis of TILDA data.

Gateway Advisor

Professor Rose Anne Kenny

Professor Rose Anne Kenny MD, FRCPI, FRCP FRCPE, FTCD, FESC, MRIA holds the Chair of Medical Gerontology and is Head of the academic department of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin, having previously been Professor of Cardiovascular Research and head of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Professor Kenny established and is director of the Mercer Institute for Successful Ageing in St James’s Hospital, where she heads the Falls and Syncope Unit. She is the founding Principal Investigator of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.