Posts Tagged ‘Research’
NS Centre on Aging seeking research particpants
The Nova Scotia Centre on Aging is seeking assistance with a research study that involves caregiver assessment of older spouses living at home with their partner who has some level of cognitive impairment. They are seeking individuals in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island who are:
- 65 years or older;
- married or in a common-law relationship;
- living at home with their spouse/partner;
- caring for/ supporting their spouse/partner due to spouse’s/partner’s memory problems, cognitive impairment or a diagnosed dementia (we are looking for individuals who are caring for those at all stages of impairment, from the early signs to very severe dementia).
They encourage anyone who is aware of someone in this situation, and who might be interested in participating in such a study to make them aware of the project website and contact information below. Additionally, anyone interested in receiving more information should not hesitate to contact them:
Timing of the C.A.R.E. Tool Project
Mary Leslie, Project Manager
Nova Scotia Centre on Aging, Mount Saint Vincent University
Tel: (902) 457-6573 or Toll free: 1-877-302-4440
Email: caretool@msvu.ca
Website: www.msvu.ca/nsca/caregiverassessment (and click Timing of the CARE Tool in left bar).
New GANS Daily Paper!
Check out the latest edition of the Ageing New Daily – a daily web publication of all the latest news in ageing from around the globe as compiled from the GANS twitter feed. Links , videos, and media that cover many aspect of the ageing issue in health, research, business, entertainment and more!
Subscribe for daily delivery of the latest in ageing news!
Simply click the ‘subscribe’ button (on the right of the screen) when you are visiting the paper to have it delivered to your inbox daily. Click here to visit the latest edition.
The paper is updated every day with new stories, links and more!
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Northwood’s first Research Symposium on Continuing Care
Join Northwood as they launch their first Research Symposium addressing the growing importance of research in the field of Continuing Care. 
This symposium will touch on topics of interest within Continuing Care, from home care to nursing homes, that appeal to administrators and managers, health care providers, researchers and students. It will also cover innovative ways of how we transfer knowledge gained from research initiatives into our daily lives.
To download the brochure and registration form, click here.
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Northwood Conference – mark your calendar!
The Northwood Foundation announces their 12th annual Spring Conference and Research Symposium: We Have A Choice - Responding to Diversity in Continuing Care. Understanding Cultural Competency.
Date is June 13, 2011
Time: 8 am-4pm
Location: Holiday Inn Harbourview, Dartmouth, NS
For more information, call 902-454-3069
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China-Canada Research Collaboration travels to Beijing.
An innovative collaboration between research groups in Beijing, China and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is leading to a better understanding of the state of the aging population in China.
Left to right: Xiaowei Song, Pulin Yu, Kenneth Rockwood, Chinese Community Doctors (3), Xianghua Fang
Led in Canada by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood of the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit (GMRU) and in China by Dr. Xianghua Fang at the Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, a team of researchers are spending three years working together on issues that arise due to an aging population
The increasing proportion of elderly people presents multiple challenges for health care, and this is particularly dramatic in China where between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of people aged 65 and older will rise from 7% to 23%, numbering more than 332 million.
There is a great amount of health data on this population accumulated in China, but the research capacity to process and explore these data is still limited. This collaboration makes use of resources and skills of those at the GMRU to help advance understanding of this problem in China.
Representing the Chinese team in Canada is Shi Jing, an epidemiologist who is not only acquiring the skills to analyze the Chinese datasets, but will take these skills back with her to China at the end of her one year stay here, and pass these on to other researchers there.
The Canadian team is currently preparing for a trip to China in May, where they will make several presentations at the 3rd National Conference of the Prevention of Common Diseases in the Elderly in Yichang Hubei, May 7-9. The China-Canada Collaboration is funded jointly by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Aging) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Brain Imaging Study Seeks Volunteers!
Drs Kenneth Rockwood and Xioawei Song are currently seeking volunteers for a brain imaging study for perfusion in Alzheimer’s disease. The study is seeking to recruit both cognitively normal volunteers, as well as those who have been diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. The study uses a non-invasive brain imaging method called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Brain images of the participants will be obtained while they perform memory tasks and at rest. 
The study appointment will take approximately two and a half hours. Participants will receive a contribution toward expenses they may incur due to participation in this study and can receive an image of their brain from the MRI!
Participants are encouraged to have a family member accompany them. Volunteers must:
1) be older adults (ages 60 – 90)
2) be fluent in English
3) have normal vision OR if you are uncertain about your vision without glasses, there is a sample diagram you can try.
4) meet all MRI safety criteria (no metal in your body except for fillings)
5) be either cognitively healthy OR have mild Alzheimer’s Disease with no other cognitive impairments
6) be a healthy adult meeting the criteria outlined in (1 – 4 above)
Who to Contact: Janet Marshall, Administrator (473 1850), or Dr. Xiaowei Song, Investigator (473 1876)
Where:
National Research Council – Institute for Biodiagnostics (Atlantic)
Neuroimaging Research Laboratory
Suite 3900, QEII Health Sciences Centre – Halifax Infirmary
January, 2009 | Version #2 | CDHA-RS/2009-287 | OREB2009-02
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Social factors impact excessive drinking in older adults.
New research, due to be published in the April edition of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, reports that older adults who “have more money, engage in more social activities, and whose friends approve more of drinking are more likely to engage in excessive or high-risk drinking.”
Rudolf H. Moos, senior research career scientist for the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, California says “Our findings show that, one, certain social factors may enhance the chances of an individual engaging in high-risk drinking and, two, once high-risk drinking has developed, social choices may be made to facilitate continuing this behavior.”
One of these choices, Moos reports, includes surrounding oneself with friends who also drink: “Older adults who engage in high-risk alcohol consumption tend to select friends who are more likely to drink and to approve of drinking. They may also experience a decline in the quality of relationships with extended family members, that is, high-risk drinking may impair some family relationships. ”
Moos also notes a gender difference: “Compared to older women, older men may be more vulnerable or susceptible to some social influences on drinking. Specifically, having more money, and friends who approve more of drinking, seem to be more closely related to high-risk drinking among older men than among older women.”
Read the full article here.
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Irrelevant information? Older brains love it.
New research published this week in Psychological Science has shown that while older brains have more difficulty filtering out extraneous information than younger brains, they appear to make great use of this information.
Karen Campbell, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Toronto, working with the Rotman Institute, says “We found that older brains are not only less likely to suppress irrelevant information than younger brains, but they can link the relevant and irrelevant pieces of information together and implicitly transfer this knowledge to subsequent memory tasks.
Dr. Lynn Hasher, whose work at the Rotman Institute focuses on inhibitory control over the contents of working memory, explains the advantage of this process:
“This could be a silver lining to aging and distraction. Older adults with reduced attentional regulation seem to display greater knowledge of seemingly extraneous co-occurrences in the environment than younger adults. As this type of knowledge is thought to play a critical role in real world decision- making, older adults may be the wiser decision-makers compared to younger adults because they have picked up so much more information.”
Read the full article here.
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Vitamin D for nursing home patients can reduce falls.
A new systematic review from the Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney in Ryde, Australia, has shown that giving people living in nursing facilities vitamin D can reduce the rate of falls. The Cochrane review, led by Dr. Ian Cameron examined 41 previous trials involving 25,422 older people, who were mostly women. 
“Five trials tested the effects of giving vitamin D to patients in nursing facilities, where it was found to be an effective measure for preventing falls. The researchers found that multifactorial interventions, which often incorporated exercise, medication, or environmental factors including appropriate equipment, reduced the risk of falls in hospitals. In nursing homes, the effects of multifactorial interventions were not significant overall. However, the researchers concluded that multifactorial interventions provided by multidisciplinary teams in these facilities may reduce the rate and risk of falls.”
Dr. Cameron points out the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach:”In our review, we saw limited evidence that these combined interventions work, but we could more confidently recommend them if they were delivered by a multidisciplinary team. Currently, there’s no one component of any of these programmes that stands out as more important than any other and we’re also missing data on whether increased supervision or new technologies such as alarm systems are of any benefit.”
Read the full article here.
In Halifax, there is the Geriatric Day Hospital and Falls Clinic. Click here for their information.
Do you know of any other falls prevention programs in Nova Scotia? Email us at info@cakens.com and we will include them in our links.
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Silver Economy Summit, Halifax, May 2010 – call for papers
The Silver Economy Summit will take place this year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 13-14. 
Presented by the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors, the Summit “will gather international, national and provincial perspectives on the economic and societal changes that arise from an aging population. Join 350 Summit delegates from a wide variety of social and economic sectors. Make connections, and share opportunities and information that will help your organization further your mandate and interests in today’s and tomorrow’s Silver Economy.”
The Summit is modeled after a series of three events held by the Silver Economy Network of European Regions, the most recent being held in June 2007 in Spain, and is the first Silver Economy Summit to be held outside of the European Union.
The organizers of the Silver Economy Summit invite submissions of papers in three theme areas. (click the link below to read more)
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