A better understanding of healthy ageing is the challenge for eight successful research teams, which were awarded $1.7 million under the NHMRC's Strategic Healthy Ageing Program.
Announcing the successful projects today, Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Kay Patterson, welcomed the focus on preventing diseases of ageing in the Australian community.
"Projects will study how ageing leads to adverse effects from drug dosages, how cells multiply as they age, examine the range of community services available for those with dementia and better understand how dementia affects the perception of pain," she said.
Of all groups in Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community is most affected by an early onset of the diseases and conditions most associated with ageing.
"It is therefore very appropriate that one of the projects will try to determine the prevalence and underlying causes of dementia in a representative sample of older Indigenous people living in the Kimberley region. This will have significant implications for the planning of effective and culturally appropriate services for older Indigenous people with dementia," Senator Patterson said.
The Strategic Healthy Ageing Program funds research in areas that will improve the health outcomes for an ageing Australian population, by both prevention and treatment of the conditions commonly associated with the ageing process. The successful teams come from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.
The Problem of Dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Kimberley Region.Dr Dina LoGiudice. National Ageing Research Institute, VIC. $200,000 over 2 years
Dementia is a term used to describe the symptoms of illnesses that cause a progressive decline in a person's memory and thinking functions. Dementia occurs more commonly in older people and has a major impact on the lives of those with the condition and their families. Common causes are Alzheimer's Disease, stroke, head injury and alcohol use. There may be a higher prevalence of dementia in Indigenous communities, with cerebrovascular disease, injury and excessive alcohol use being common underlying and potentially reversible causes.
Further research is needed to determine the magnitude of the problem. Before this can be ascertained, an appropriate means of assessing a person with memory problems and possible dementia needs to be developed in a culturally sensitive manner. This study aims to develop and validate an assessment tool that is specific for those of Indigenous background. A study will also be performed to determine the prevalence and underlying causes of dementia, in a representative sample of older Indigenous people living in the Kimberley region. This will have significant implications for the planning of effective and culturally appropriate services for older Indigenous people with dementia and their families and carers.
Pain and Suffering in People with Alzheimer's Disease. A/Pr Stephen Gibson, National Ageing Research Institute, VIC. $120,000 over 1 year
People with Alzheimer's disease receive less pain relieving medications than other older adults matched for age, despite having similar levels of comorbid medical disease and injury. Do older adults with Alzheimer's disease feel pain in the same way and to the same extent as adults without dementia? This study will examine pain sensitivity and undertake an objective physiological measure of central nervous system pain processing in older adults with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers expect the study results to provide some of the first evidence of similarities and differences in the pain experience of demented older persons. The findings should help guide the practice of pain assessment and management as well as inform routine clinical care for this highly dependent and vulnerable group.
Functional Ageing, Health and Services: A longitudinal outcomes study. Prof Hal Kendig, La Trobe University, VIC. $211,465 over 3 years
This study will examine ways in which functional ageing, medical conditions, and health behaviours influence the health, well-being and service use in a sample of 1,000 older people from 1994-2005. The study will add to an existing longitudinal study that has been following older people living in the community since 1994. The large sample and long duration will identify rare outcomes and gender, socio-economic, and other sources of variability. The findings will identify the most important factors that precipitate disability onset, service use, duration of care at home after disability onset, and predictors of entry to residential care.
Australian Ageing Alliance: Geriatric Pharmacology. Prof David Le Couteur, Anzac Research Institute, University of Sydney, NSW. $165,000 over 3 years
Ageing is a major risk factor for disease and disability and has profound effects on response to therapeutic interventions. Older people are likely to benefit from pharmacological therapies because of the high prevalence of disease. Unfortunately they are also more likely to suffer from adverse drug effects. One of the reasons that drug therapy is more complex is because ageing is associated with impaired ability to metabolise drugs, particularly related to ageing changes in the liver. The researchers propose to examine the effects of pseudocapillarisation on the metabolism of drugs used to treat psychiatric conditions. This provides a basis for selection of appropriate drugs and dosages.
Genetics of Cellular Ageing. Dr Lily Huschtscha, Children's Medical Research Institute, NSW. $300,000 over 3 years
Many of the cells that constitute human tissues and organs need to be continuously replenished during a lifetime, and some need to be replenished to heal wounds or repair other types of injuries. To do this, cells need to be able to reproduce themselves. It is now known that there is a limit on the number of times that this can happen, and that this limitation contributes substantially to aspects of the ageing process. To understand ageing, and to be able to prevent and treat diseases of ageing, it is important to understand what limits cellular proliferation. In this study, the researchers will use a suite of recently developed analytical technologies to identify the molecular mechanisms responsible for the telomere-independent component of cellular ageing. This will lay the foundation for the eventual development of new ways of preventing and treating those aspects of diseases of ageing that result from limited cellular proliferation.
How well do health and community services help older people with neuro-degenerative disorders and their family caregivers? Prof Annette Dobson, University of Queensland, QLD $124,705 over 2.5 years
This is a comparative study of older people and their carers living with two groups of neurodegenerative disorders which are likely to require different types of support and services: Alzheimer's disease and dementia; and Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and the residual effects of stroke. Family caregivers will be recruited using the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Information will be obtained about their experiences of health care and other services, and the impact caring has on their own health.
Osteoarthritis in a Rapidly Ageing Population. Assoc Prof Nick Fazzalari, University of Adelaide, SA. $240,000 over 3 years
The process of bone remodelling is fundamental for the maintenance of skeletal integrity. There is little information regarding the expression of specific molecules in human bone tissue or their role in skeletal disease. This project will study human cancellous bone samples donated by patients undergoing surgery and, with the consent of the next-of-kin, taken at autopsy. In addition, molecular and histomorphometric studies will determine whether the understanding derived from tissue culture and animal experiments is consistent with associations demonstrable in the human cancellous bone microenvironment.
Healthy and Pathological Ageing of the Brain. Assoc Prof James Vickers, University of Tasmania, TAS. $300,000 over 3 years
Increasing numbers of people world-wide are becoming susceptible to the brain degeneration that underlies age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. While medical research is resulting in new therapeutic avenues and diagnostic assays, brain diseases such as Alzheimer's remain difficult to identify conclusively and there are no treatments available that effectively stem the gradual degeneration of nerve cells that underlies the development of dementia. This project will examine the features of the brain associated with 'healthy' ageing, as well as the brain changes that herald the beginning of the 'pathological' ageing of the brain leading to Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the researchers will investigate whether a blood test that detects the products of brain degeneration can be useful in identifying individuals in the very earliest stages of the disease.