The 45 and Up Study: an investment in healthy ageing

Objectives and importance of the study: To identify the value and contribution of the 45 and Up Study toward understanding and advancing healthy ageing.

Narrative review Methods: A review of the purpose, process, and output of the 45 and Up Study in relation to the World Health Organization's Healthy Ageing Framework.

The Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study (the Study) is Australia's largest longitudinal study of healthy ageing, with participants aged from 45 years to over 100 years followed over time through surveys and linked health and aged care data. The study is a powerful resource for understanding healthy ageing for the Australian population, identifying the factors that enable people to age well, widening inequities as people age, and prospects for healthy ageing for current and subsequent generations. To date, the participants have been followed for more than 15 years, providing information on the foundations of health in mid and later-life, factors affecting work, impacts of retirement, and the importance of housing, care, and aged services in improving the lives of people as they age. Moreover, since the Study cohort covers a wide age range, it is possible to divide the cohort into sequences, allowing comparisons of people in their 80s now (for example) with people who were aged in their 80s five, 10 or 15 years ago. Adding genetic and other biological and clinical data for some participants will further enhance the value of the project as a comprehensive study of healthy ageing.

The Study provides a clear view of factors affecting healthy ageing within population, healthcare, environmental and policy contexts. Over time, the Study will increase in value with the capacity to inform health services, policy, and aged care and to contribute to an ongoing cycle of evaluation and reform to continue to meet the needs of successive generations of people in the later stages of their lives.