ANU - PATH Through Life Project - PATH Through Life Project

Information for Participants

FAQs from participants

How was I selected to take part in the PATH Project?
How many people are still taking part in the Project?
What happens to my cheek swab?
Can I get my genetic results?
How do you keep the PATH information secure?

Message from Associate Professor Kaarin Anstey, Principal Investigator on the PATH Project

Thank you to all the individuals who’ve given up their time to participant in this study. Without research volunteers this important research into mental health and wellbeing could not continue. The PATH study is unique internationally and your contribution is essential to the progress of the study, and the medical research and policy benefits that we derive from it. We greatly appreciate the time that you give up to undertake the study assessments, and the effort many participants make to keep in touch with us.

Contact us

To contact us with a question or to update your contact details:
Email: karen.maxwell@anu.edu.au
Telephone: 02 61258417 (Karen) or 02 61258408 (Trish)
Mail:
Centre for Mental Health Research
Attn: Karen Maxwell
Building 63
Eggleston Rd
Australian National University, ACT 0200

If updating your address details please tell us what age group you are in and provide your ID is you have it. If you don’t have your ID please provide your full name and the address we would have listed for you.

Results from physical testing

Many participants like to be able to compare their own performance on the physical tests to the rest their age group. Results for the three waves of interviewing are shown below for the 20+ age group while results from the first two waves are given for the 40+ and 60+ age groups.

20+ age group

	First Interview (1999/2000)		Second Interview (2003/2004)		Third Interview (2007/2008
Test	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
Handgrip	29	47	30	48	31	52
FEV / FVC (height less than 160cm)	2.7 / 3.0	N/A	2.7 / 3.1	N/A	2.8 / 3.2	N/A
FEV / FVC (height 160-169cms)	3.0 / 3.3	3.3 / 3.9	2.9 / 3.4	3.5 / 4.2	3.0 / 3.5	3.5 / 4.2
FEV / FVC (height 110-179cms)	3.2 / 3.6	4.0 / 4.5	3.3 / 3.7	4.0 / 4.6	3.3 / 3.9	4.1 / 4.7
FEV / FVC (height 180-189cms)	3.6 / 4.0	4.3 / 4.9	3.7 / 4.1	4.3 / 5.0	3.7 / 4.2	4.8 / 5.7
FEV / FVC (height 190 or more cms)	N/A	4.7 / 5.4	N/A	4.7 / 5.5	N/A	4.8 / 5.7
Blood pressure (systolic/diastolic)	112 / 72	129 / 76	110 / 72	127 / 77	116 / 73	131 / 76
Pulse	72	68	71	68	72	68

FEV Expired volume in 1 second (litres)
FVC Full lung volume (litres)

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40+ age group

	First Interview (2000/2001)		Second Interview (2004/2005)		Third Interview (2008/2009)
Test	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
Handgrip	29	47	28	48
FEV / FVC (height less than 160cm)	2.4 / 2.8	3.3 / 3.9	2.3 / 2.7	2.9 / 3.5
FEV / FVC (height 160-169cms)	2.7 / 3.2	3.1 / 3.6	2.6 / 3.1	3.1 / 3.7
FEV / FVC (height 110-179cms)	3.0 / 3.5	3.5 / 4.1	2.9 / 3.4	3.4 / 4.1
FEV / FVC (height 180-189cms)	3.3 / 3.98	3.9 / 4.6	3.2 / 3.7	3.8 / 4.6
FEV / FVC (height 190 or more cms)		4.1 / 5.1		4.1 / 5.0
Blood pressure (systolic/diastolic)	118 / 77	132 / 84	119 / 78	131 / 84
Pulse	72	71	71	71

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60+ age group

	First Interview (2001/2002)		Second Interview (2005/2006)		Third Interview (2009/2010)
Test	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
Handgrip	25	42	23	38
FEV / FVC (height less than 160cm)	1.8 / 2.3	2.6 / 3.0	1.8 / 2.2	2.4 / 3.0
FEV / FVC (height 160-169cms)	2.0 / 2.6	2.5 / 3.1	2.0 / 2.5	2.5 / 3.1
FEV / FVC (height 110-179cms)	2.2 / 2.8	2.8 / 3.5	2.1 / 2.7	2.7 / 3.4
FEV / FVC (height 180-189cms)	2.6 / 3.1	3.1 / 3.9	2.4 / 3.1	3.0 / 3.8
FEV / FVC (height 190 or more cms)		4.2 / 3.2		3.3 / 4.4
Blood pressure (systolic/diastolic)	136 / 80	143 / 86	134 / 79	142 / 83
Pulse	72	71	71	68

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FAQs from participants

How was I selected to take part in the PATH Project?

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is allowed by law to provide the name and address details of enrolled voters to research institutions for approved medical research purposes. Following application by CMHR to be allowed access to the Electoral Roll, the AEC provided us with a list of names and addresses from within the age ranges requested. These lists were from the three Federal electorates that make up the A.C.T. and the electorate of Eden-Monaro. From this latter Electorate we selected only those who gave Queanbeyan as their residential address.
At the time of requesting the Electoral Roll data for the 20-24 year olds and 40-44 year olds, legislation would only allow release in 10-year age groups. Electoral Roll data was therefore provided on 20-29 year olds and 40-49 year olds.
Those not in the required age group were excluded from the sample following contact with an interviewer, who ascertained their age. By the time data on the oldest age group was requested (2001), the legislation had changed and Electoral Roll data for a specific 60-64 year olds cohort was able to be obtained.
From the names provided we selected a random sample of people to invite to take part in the project.

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How many people are still taking part in the Project?

On completion of the first ‘Wave’ of interviewing we had interviewed 2404 people in the 20+ group, 2530 people in the 40+ age group and 2551 people in the 60+ age group.
At the time of the second interview (Wave 2), 2239 (89%) of those in the 20+ group were re-interviewed, 2352 (93%) of the original 40+ group and 2222 (87%) of the 60+ age group. Quite a number of participants, particularly in the 20+ group, had moved away from the Canberra area to other parts of Australia or overseas. Most of those in other parts of Australia were able to be interviewed and many others, including those overseas completed the questionnaire by mail or email.
We have completed the third Wave of interviewing for the 20+ age group and 2239 were re-interviewed. This is 82% of those interviewed in Wave 1. Currently, those in the 40+ group are being re-interviewed and we are confident that we will have a very good response rate.

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What happens to my cheek swab?

When you rub the inside of your cheek with the brush provided, cells from your skin get transferred to the brush. Once a cheek swab has been taken, it is frozen as quickly as possible, and then taken to the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU where the DNA is extracted from it. This DNA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA) contains all of the genetic instructions or ‘genes’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genes) needed for developing and maintaining your body. In general terms, a gene is a section of DNA which defines a characteristic or trait. Genes, however, often vary between individuals, leading to differences in characteristics between people eg. eye colour, blood group.
Sometimes people are born with an error in one of their genes which results in an illness or disability. In some cases people only develop an illness if they inherit the same ‘bad’ gene from both parents eg muscular dystrophy. In these conditions usually only one gene is involved and the person will definitely develop the condition if they inherit it from both parents.

However, the types of genes the PATH project is interested in are different. We are interested in looking at genes that may influence the development of common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. For these sorts of conditions a combination of genes is responsible. In fact, the development of these conditions is thought to be influenced not only by a number of different genes but also by things that happen to people in their lives. So someone with a variation of a gene that may predispose them to depression my never actually become depressed because no life events occur that may trigger the illness.

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Can I get my genetic results?

A consequence of examining these types of genes, is that providing you with information on your gene types will not tell you that you are likely to develop an illness as this will be dependant on a lot of other factors. It is possible, however, that research organisations looking at the same genes as us may discover a function of a gene that could have a more direct importance to your health. In this case, we will ask you if you wish to be notified, either directly or through your general practitioner, about your individual results.

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How do you keep the PATH information secure?

All of the personally identifiable information (e.g. name, contact details) that we have about our participants is kept on a database that can only be accessed by Karen, Trish or Liz. This database is kept on a server that is located within CMHR. Although this database is backed up on a regular basis and stored off site, this backed up data is encrypted so no one else can read the file.
The interviewers are required to have paperwork containing your names and contact details. These papers are stored in a locked cabinet in each interviewer’s home and not left unattended in their cars.
You will have noticed that you have been assigned an ID number. Once you have completed a PATH interview all of the information is identified by ID only. This ID can only be matched to your name using the database discussed above.