2025

Wave 7 of TILDA will commence in early 2025. This wave will include a personal interview in the participant's home and a self-completion questionnaire which can be completed either on paper or electronically for the first time. There will be no health assessment in Wave 7, though measures of walking speed will be taken during the personal interview.

2022

As TILDA has been ongoing since 2009, our original group of participants have aged with the study, making it necessary to recruit a new group aged 45-64 years. From May 2022 to October 2023, households in the Republic of Ireland were randomly chosen and invited to participate in the TILDA study. Eligible and interested adults aged between 45-64 years and their spouses were recruited to the TILDA replenishment cohort. A total of 2194 participants were recruited.

2022

The Wave 6 TILDA Health Assessments began in July 2022 and was completed in May 2023. 1918 participants completed a health assessment, with 1414 participants completing a health assessment at a dedicated health centre in Trinity College Dublin, and 504 participants completing a health assessment in their own home.

2021

The Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project (HCAP) is a sub-study that began in November 2021 until December 2023 as part of the Wave 6 data collection. This sub-study entailed a detailed cognitive assessment, and a phone interview with a family/friend nominated by the participant. The TILDA-HCAP assessments were carried out in the homes of randomly selected participants aged 65 and older from TILDA. The cognitive assessment protocol was closely harmonised with the HCAP sub-studies conducted across a range of longitudinal ageing studies including the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), The Northern Ireland Cohort Longitudinal study of Ageing (NICOLA), and The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). 1344 participants completed a HCAP assessment, achieving a response rate of 73.4%. 982 family/friend members completed phone interviews, achieving a response rate of 73.0%.

2021

Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CAPI) were conducted with participants from September 2020 to December 2021. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, interview data was collected using this method rather than Face to Face interviews as in previous waves. 4,228 self-interviews were captured, achieving a response rate of 76% for the sixth wave of TILDA.

2020

COVID-19 Self-Completion Questionnaires (SCQs) were posted to TILDA participants home addresses and returned by pre-paid post from July 2020 to November 2020. The questions in this questionnaire were centred around the experiences of adults aged 60 years and older during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 5,535 booklets were posted to the participants aged 60 years and older, and 3,677 of those responded, achieving a response rate of 66%.

2018

Wave 5 of TILDA was completed in 2018.

Wave 5 included a personal interview in the participant's home and a self-completion questionnaire. There was no health assessment in Wave 5, though measures of hand grip strength and walking speed were taken during the personal interview.

The results from Wave 5 were published in a report entitled, "The Older Population of Ireland on the Eve of the COVID-19 Pandemic", launched in November 2018.

2016

Wave 4 of TILDA took place in 2016. Over 6000 interviews were carried out in participants own homes. In addition to collecting repeat questions on health, social and economic circumstances, this wave included new questions on topics such as health literacy and childhood health for the first time.

There was no separate health assessment during this wave, but the interviewers took a measure of handgrip strength and walking speed when they visited participants in their homes.

The first results from Wave 4 were published in a report entitled ‘Wellbeing and Health in Ireland's Over 50s 2009-2016’ launched in November 2018.

2014-2015

The third wave of TILDA began in 2014 and was completed in 2015. 6687 participants completed an interview in their own home, with 80% also completing a health assessment, either in their own home or at a dedicated health assessment centre in Trinity College Dublin. The Wave 3 questionnaire included new questions, for example on dietary habits, while the health assessment included novel measures on sensory function, cognition and cardiovascular health. The inclusion of a follow-up health assessment allows us to look at changes in objective health measures in addition to the changes in health that participants report during their interview.

The first results from Wave 3 were published in a report entitled ‘Health and Wellbeing: Active Ageing for Older Adults in Ireland. Evidence from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing’, and researchers are currently preparing the data for publication in academic journals.

2012

Wave 2 of the study, which involved re-visiting and re-interviewing participants’ from the first wave was completed in 2012. The information collected through these follow up interviews allows us to look at how participants circumstances and experiences have changed (or stayed the same) since our first visit.

As in Wave 1, an interviewer visited all participants and asked questions about things we believe to be important in the lives of people aged 50 and over. Topics covered included health, housing, social support, work, retirement, pensions and quality of life. Since the first interview we added a number of new questions, including some on personality. There was no separate health assessment during this wave, but the interviewers took a measure of handgrip strength and walking speed when they visited participants in their homes.

The first results from Wave 2 were published in a report titled ‘The Over 50s in a Changing Ireland: Economic Circumstances, Health and Well-Being'.

2009-2011

Over 8,500 people took part in the first wave of TILDA in 2009 and 2010. All participants completed an interview in their own a home and over 6,000 also completed a health assessment, either in their own home or at a dedicated health centre in Cork or Dublin.

The first results from Wave 1 were published in a report ‘Fifty Plus in Ireland 2011: First Results from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing’.