Use and costs of medications and other health care resources : findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) is a longitudinal population-basedsurvey funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Theproject began in 1996 and involves three large, nationally representative, cohorts of Australianwomen representing three generations:• Younger women, aged 18 to 23 years when first recruited in 1996 (n=14,247) and now aged 30 to 35 years;• Mid-age women, aged 45 to 50 years in 1996 (n=13,716), now aged 57 to 62 years;• Older women, aged 70 to 75 years in 1996 (n=12,432), now aged 82 to 87 years.The women have now been surveyed at least four times over the past 12 years providing alarge amount of data on the women’s lifestyles, use of health services and health outcomes.