Cohort profile: The Dynamic Analyses to Optimize Ageing (DYNOPTA) project

Abstract

Like other industrialized countries, Australia is facing major population ageing. From 2000 to 2025, the number of Australians aged 65 years and over will more than double, as a result of the ageing of the baby boom cohort and increasing life expectancy, while the number of people in working age groups will decline.¹ To guide constructive responses to this unprecedented change, the Government's Minister on Ageing released the National Strategy for an Ageing Australia² which set key issues for national policy development, to be underpinned by policy. In 2003, the Australian Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) brought together leading researchers and policymakers who prepared a report articulating an evidence-based vision for healthy ageing in Australia and an associated programme of longitudinal research to guide the achievement of ‘an additional 10 years of healthy life expectancy’ by 2050.² That same year, the Australian government established ‘Ageing Well, Ageing Productively’ as a National Research Priority goal. In 2004 the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded national research networks including the Research Network in Ageing Well (RNAW) to lead and facilitate collaboration in multidisciplinary large scale research on ageing, build research capacities and international collaborations, and improve communication and translation with key constituencies (www.ageingwell.edu.au).