The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), Australia’s largest health survey, is to continue for another three years.
Announced by the Ministers for Health, Greg Hunt and for Women, Senator Marise Payne, ALSWH partners the University of Queensland and the University of Newcastle are to receive $8.58 million over the next three years to provide ongoing funding for the project.
Mr Hunt said the Study had been running since 1996 and collected important data on women’s health status and trends from across the nation.
“For a quarter of a century, the ALSWH has played a leading role in nurturing our understanding of how health issues impact on the everyday lives of women, how women negotiate these issues, and the ways in which women engage with the health system,” Mr Hunt said.
“The Study has been integral in guiding national approaches to developing services and supports that are tailored to women’s needs, and provide the best means of realising improved health outcomes for women, at all stages of their life,” he said.
Senator Payne said the Study followed more than 57,000 women who were broadly representative of the Australian population, and spanned four generations.
“The three original cohorts were women born in the years 1921-26, 1945-51 and 1973-78,” Senator Payne said.
“A new cohort of more than 17,000 women born in the years 1989-95, who were then aged 18 to 23 years old, was added in 2013,” she said.
“As well as continuing the study, the additional funding will finance a project to improve the representation of women from South East Asia, North East Asia, and Southern Asia.”
Senator Payne said data from the study was made available for national and international research use and since the study began, it had been used in more than 800 scientific publications.
