Older Adults

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a large-scale, nationally representative study of people aged 50 and over in Ireland. It is the most ambitious study of ageing ever carried out in Ireland and represents a step-change in terms of data/ knowledge/ understanding of ageing with which to inform policy and novel research.More than 8,000 people aged 50 and over accepted the invitation to participate in the first wave of TILDA, and the majority of these also agreed to undertake a comprehensive health assessment.The role of the family is often emphasised in Ireland, but to date there is little evidence on what families provide to older adults, what older adults give to their families. TILDA enables a detailed analysis of the relationship of older adults to their families/ communities in terms of the contact that older people have with family members, the exchanges that take place within families and the broader networks of help/ support among friends and neighbours. The findings support an optimistic view that the majority of older people live relatively near to their children/ surviving parents, have frequent contact with them, and inter-generational transfers are common.