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Participants

TILDA is the most detailed study on ageing ever undertaken in Ireland and it is made possible by the generosity of all our participants, who have given up their time to speak to our interviewers, fill out questionnaires and undergo health assessments.

This ground-breaking study looks at the health, lifestyles and financial situation of 8,504 people as they grow older, and sees how their circumstances change over time. The study is being carried out by Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with an inter-disciplinary panel of experts in various fields of ageing.

The information gathered by TILDA improves our understanding of the factors that aid successful ageing in Ireland. It also assists in the development of a range of economic, health and social policies benefiting all people living in Ireland. Some of the questions we are interested in answering are:

What are the factors that determine successful ageing?
How do people’s health and level of disability change over time?
What happens to people’s memory as they age?
What are the causes of memory changes?
What are the factors that decide when people retire and how do people plan for their retirement?
Do people have enough savings to provide for their older age?
How can we help people understand the economic requirements of ageing?
How do people’s activities, relationships and quality of life change over time?
What is the relationship between people’s health status, economic situation and social circumstances?
How does this relationship change over time?
How can we use these relationships to improve quality of life in ageing?

Participant Selection

Thank you to those of you who contact us wishing to volunteer. TILDA participants are selected randomly, from a list of pre-identified local electoral areas. This is so our study population can maintain representativeness of the overall population of adults of similar age in Ireland, spanning factors like age, geographical area and socioeconomic status. For this reason, though we thank you sincerely for your interest, it is not possible to recruit by volunteering.

However, we currently have interviewers approaching adults aged 45 – 64 years old (the age range of our 'Replenishment' sample) and they are knocking on randomly selected doors in areas across the country. To help raise awareness for the Replenishment campaign, we periodically run media and social media advertisments. In addition, our Principal Investigator, Prof. Rose Anne Kenny continues to promote the value of being part of such a valuable research study. So, if you receive a letter or a knock on the door in the coming weeks and months from TILDA, this could be your opportunity to register as a TILDA participant.

Check out our Participant's Perspective video