Research Methods

The adults in our research involve participants of the Aging in Manitoba (AIM) Project, some of whom are now centenarians. Spanning 35 years (1971-2006) and including nearly 9,000 adults, AIM is one of the largest and longest population-based studies of older adults. In addition, under the direction of Dr. Judith Chipperfield, the Laboratory for Aging and Health Research conducted the Successful Aging Studies (1996, 2003, 2006) which involved subsamples of the AIM participants. These Successful Aging Studies were done to learn more about the psychological factors related to aging and health.

We gather information from older individuals during personal interviews conducted in their homes, and, in some cases, participants wear mechanical activity recorders (to measure everyday physical activity) and oximeters (to measure blood oxygen). In addition, some participants have released to us their provincial health records. The linkage of these different data sources allows us to explore the extent to which psychological, emotional, and behavioral factors are related to physical outcomes, use of health care resources, and even mortality.