CLSA Overview

The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is one of CIHR's Major Strategic Initiatives. Its development was championed by the Institute of Aging. The fundamental goal of this initiative is to mobilize experts in the community to generate the scientific content for a longitudinal research platform that will enable interdisciplinary, population-based research and evidence-based decision-making that will lead to better health and quality of life for Canadians.

The CLSA is a large, national, long-term study and research platform that follows approximately 51,338 Canadian men and women who were between the ages of 45 and 85 (at inception) for at least 20 years (until 2033 or death). The study collects information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, and economic aspects of people's lives. These factors will be studied in order to understand how, individually and in combination, they have an impact in both maintaining health and in the development of disease and disability as people age. The CLSA is the largest platform of its kind in Canada, and one of the largest platforms internationally for its breadth and depth.

Data Collection

Between 2010 and 2015, the CLSA recruited and collected information from 51,338 individuals.

• Tracking Cohort: the 21,241 participants are a sample from across the 10 provinces and provide core information via telephone interviews.
• Comprehensive Cohort: the 30,097 participants provide core information through in-home interviews and additional in-depth information gathered through physical examinations and biological specimen collected at data collection sites.

Two additional waves of data collection have been completed: Follow-up 1 (2015-2018) and Follow-up 2 (2018-2021). The third wave of data collection, known as Follow-up 3, was launched in 2021 and will continue until 2024.

Since the first data release in 2015, more than 400 research teams in Canada and around the world have accessed the CLSA research platform.

CLSA Team

The CLSA’s principal investigators provide overall scientific leadership and share primary responsibility for oversight of all CLSA activities. Dr. Parminder Raina of McMaster University is the lead principal investigator, Dr. Susan Kirkland of Dalhousie University and Dr. Christina Wolfson of McGill University are principal investigators.

They lead a team of more than 160 co-investigators and collaborators from 26 Canadian universities, and more than 250 employees across Canada, who all work together to support the ongoing success of the CLSA as a national research platform.

Governance

The CLSA has a governance structure in place to support effective ongoing management of the CLSA, including an Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) Committee to uphold the accountability, transparency and integrity of the CLSA. Details on CLSA committees are available on the Governance section of the CLSA website.

Infrastructure

To enable data collection and analysis, the CLSA has established the following state-of-the-art infrastructure across the country:

• Enabling Units:
  • National Coordinating Centre (NCC), which includes the Information Technology Hub, in Hamilton, ON
  • Biorepository and Bioanalysis Centre (BBC) in Hamilton, ON
  • Data Curation Center (DCC) in Montreal, QC
  • Genetic and Epigenetics Centre (GC) in Vancouver, BC
• Four (4) Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) Sites: Vancouver, BC; Winnipeg MB; Sherbrooke, QC; and Halifax, NS
• Eleven (11) Data Collection Sites: Victoria, BC; Vancouver, BC; Surrey, BC; Calgary, AB; Winnipeg, MB; Hamilton ON; Ottawa ON; Montreal QC; Sherbrooke, QC; Halifax, NS; and St. John’s, NL

CLSA Sub-Studies

In 2020, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the CLSA launched three sub-studies to examine the impact of COVID-19 on middle aged and older adults in Canada. More information about the COVID-19 Questionnaire Study, the COVID-19 Seroprevalence (Antibody) Study and the COVID-19 Brain Health Study are available on the CLSA COVID-19 Studies on the CLSA Website.

Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging, an initiative supported by the Weston Family Foundation, was launched in 2022 to enhance the CLSA research platform with brain imaging and gut microbiome analyses. The introduction of these measures will help shed light on factors that influence brain health and healthy aging outcomes.

For questions about the CLSA, please contact: info@clsa-elcv.ca or visit the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) website.

Date modified:

2024-08-12