merrion street

Minister for Mental Health and Older People Helen McEntee TD today opened a conference to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin.

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) which was launched in November 2006 is a multiannual longitudinal study of the health, social and economic circumstances of 8,000 people aged 50 years and over. It is the first study of its kind in Ireland and has been conducted since its inception by Trinity College Dublin.

TILDA collects detailed information on all aspects of the participants lives, including:
Health (physical, mental, service needs and usage, etc.);
The economic dimension (pensions, employment, income and assets, etc.);
The social dimension (contact with friends and kin, formal and informal care, social participation. etc.).

The Minister said “TILDA is unique amongst longitudinal studies in the scope of measures collected which includes a health assessment component. It represents a critical source of evidence to better understand ageing in Ireland over a sustained period of time and across a number of domains. TILDA provides evidence to inform public policy on health and wellbeing and across a wide range of other areas such as pensions and retirement, social inclusion, crime, housing and transport.

I am very happy that the Department of Health has been able, along with the Atlantic Philanthropies, to provide financial support for TILDA and I look forward to working with TILDA to ensure that policy making is more and more based on good research and hard evidence."