The Canberra Longitudinal Study: Design, aims, methodology, outcomes and recent empirical investigations

Abstract

The first section of this paper describes methodology and major cognitive outcomes of the Canberra Longitudinal Study (CLS). This community study of 1045 Australians aged 70 years or over commenced in 1990. Participants were reassessed on three subsequent occasions. Its major themes were investigations of prevalence of dementia and depression, risk factors, inter-individual variability and instrument development. Over 60 papers arising from the study have been published. The second section of this paper describes the use of a Factor of Curves (FOC) latent growth model to examine the existence of a common factor responsible for age-related deterioration in cognitive and non-cognitive processe..