Blog

Today marks the launch of the new TILDA gateway highlighting HRB-funded outputs that have been published on HRB Open Research, either from TILDA researchers or based on analysis of TILDA data. In this blog, Gateway Advisors Rose Anne Kenny and Paul O’Mahoney of TILDA discuss the uniqueness of these longitudinal studies and TILDA’s commitment to open access.

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a nationally representative, longitudinal research study, now 13 years in existence, which collects key information on all aspects of the health, economic and social circumstances of adults aged 50 and over living in Ireland. TILDA is the most detailed study on ageing ever undertaken in Ireland, documenting comprehensive subjective and objective measures of health, and financial and social circumstances of TILDA participants every two years.

A unique study

Five waves of data collection have so far been completed. TILDA is unique among longitudinal studies in the breadth of physical, mental health and cognitive measures collected. These data, together with the extensive social and economic data, make TILDA one of the most comprehensive research studies of its kind both in Europe and internationally.

The overarching aim of TILDA is to make Ireland the best country in the world in which to grow old. TILDA research has contributed to formation of economic, health and social policies to benefit Ireland’s ageing population and wider society. Thanks to the support of TILDA participants, the TILDA study provides an unparalleled resource to understand how a range of factors influence outcomes in ageing. 

A central point for all to access

A commitment where possible to open access publishing is one of TILDA’s goals. The TILDA gateway will collate in one, easily accessible place linked outputs from a single study. The HRB Open Research platform is an excellent means of engaging with the wider scholarly community and developing collaborative research networks, and, importantly, of reaching patients and the public. It provides a very useful channel to showcase TILDA’s outputs, increase knowledge of the dataset and reach policymakers, public service professionals and the public.

We hope the gateway will inspire greater interest in and engagement with our research, and knowledge of the content of the TILDA dataset. We hope the gateway functions serve as a ‘go to’ source for peer-reviewed and reputable research for a wide variety of stakeholders, from those planning and delivering healthcare in Ireland, to professional researchers, patient and advocacy groups and ‘experts by experience’.

Research spotlight

The TILDA gateway will feature articles that use TILDA data, both from the TILDA research team and by others using the public dataset accessible through the Irish Social Science Data Archive.

The article ‘Population-based palliative care planning in Ireland: how many people will live and die with serious illness to 2046?’ uses the TILDA dataset in combination with other datasets to provide a projection of palliative care needs in the Irish population. Working from a baseline of 2016 data, it projects the increase over thirty years to 2046 and outlines implications for health planning and policy. 

‘Oral health status of community dwelling adults aged 50 years and over in Ireland. A cross-sectional analysis of the Wave 3 TILDA cohort’ shows a novel use of the data available from TILDA, examining the under-researched topic of oral health. It uses measures from the TILDA Oral Health Assessment from Wave 3 of the study. Its results suggest improved oral health in older adults in Ireland compared to older studies.

In the future, new research arising from two projects led by TILDA secured under the HRB COVID-19 Rapid Response Funding Scheme will be added. More details on TILDA’s projects can be found here.

TILDA and HRB open research

HRB Open Research provides a robust, efficient and transparent peer-review process and makes leading research in healthcare and related fields directly accessible to relevant professionals, researchers and the general public. It is leading the reform of the system of academic peer review and publishing in Ireland. Its speed, relative to the pace of most academic publishing, particularly means that policy-relevant research findings can be submitted to professional scrutiny and published in a timely manner. This is important for TILDA research, which fundamentally aims to inform health and social policy.

Browse through the content to see the range of articles and areas of health research covered.