Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n 18 and Up\u2019s scientific director, Adjunct Prof Justine Gatt, said there was a lack of long-term data for younger generations, with existing studies often only giving researchers information from a snapshot in time.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost two in five young Australians aged 16 to 24 experienced a mental disorder in the past year, and that number has been rising,\u201d Gatt, a neuroscientist and mental health researcher said. \u201cYet we still lack the long-term evidence needed to understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n Suicide is the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15 to 44, and researchers have said there is an urgent need to understand and address driving factors<\/a> to improve prevention efforts and mental health treatments.<\/p>\n Children and grandchildren of 45 and Up participants will be invited to participate, which Gatt said will help researchers understand how health is influenced by a complex mix of family history, lived experiences and social conditions, and how these factors interact across generations.<\/p>\n The CEO of the Sax Institute, Dr Martin McNamara, said along with mental health, questions around cancer will also be an important part of the initial round of surveys.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s important we follow people over time \u2026 so that we can figure out ways to fix and re-organise our health and care systems,\u2019 says Sax Institute CEO Dr Martin McNamara. Photograph: SAX Institute<\/p>\n Since 2000, there has been an increase in early-onset cancers<\/a> \u2013 defined as those diagnosed beyond adolescence but before the age of 50 \u2013 in Australia and other parts of the world. This includes bowel, thyroid, breast<\/a> and other cancers.<\/p>\n While scientists think increased screening, changing lifestyles and different exposures to risk factors in early life and young adulthood may all be factors, there have been calls for urgent research<\/a> to better understand these and other influences.<\/p>\n Participants will be asked about health, lifestyle, social circumstances and background and, with consent, this information will be linked to other health records, such as cancer registries and Medicare.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important we follow people over time \u2026 so that we can figure out ways to fix and re-organise our health and care systems,\u201d McNamara said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |When needed<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have a really good picture of their lives, the things that are important to them, their education, their employment, where they live.\u201d<\/p>\n The study will evolve with participants to receive age-relevant questions, and emerging health conditions or pandemics will be factored in. It is being funded by a $4.5m National Health<\/a> and Medical Research Council grant, with recruitment beginning in November.<\/p>\n Professor of epidemiology and public health at the Australia National University, Emily Banks, is a former scientific director at the Sax Institute who used 45 and Up study data to reveal in 2025<\/a> that smoking-related illnesses kill 66 Australians every day \u2013 more than previously thought.<\/p>\n Banks said large-scale cohort studies are powerful as they give researchers a window into the population and help detail what people are exposed to during their lives. She said the 45 and Up data has become an important collaborative resource.<\/p>\n It has been used by more than 800 researchers worldwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had hundreds of researchers using the data. We also have around 10% of the population of New South Wales in that age [45+] group in the study,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the biggest advances in health have come from using this kind of information.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14 and at MensLine<\/a> on 1300 789 978.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers hope to better understand the drivers of major health challenges facing younger people, such as mental illness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-660747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793288050_892_2998.jpg\")
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