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Exercise combined with social or family connections
are two other factors that increase the chances of
healthier ageing.
Image: iStockphoto, courtesy of ANU Reporter

No one likes the prospect of being incapable to care for themselves in their old age. Yet advances in health care and living standards mean that more of us are likely to live longer than our ancestors. With this in mind, having trouble walking, not being able to drive or forgetting a loved one’s name are possible future realities for many of us. But can we prevent the seemingly inevitable?

Professor Kaarin Anstey, director of the Ageing Research Unit at ANU, believes academics could provide the answers. She was recently presented with the 2009 Ewald W. Busse Research Award in Paris for her contribution to international research in gerontology, particularly the social and behavioural aspects of ageing.

“There are a lot of negative stereotypes about ageing, physically and socially, and researchers are addressing some of those stereotypes – we need to discover what people can do to age well,” Professor Anstey says.

“Ageing is a global phenomenon, so we need to think about how Australia relates to the rest of the world, in terms of ageing well and what we can learn from other countries.”

The Ageing Research Unit was established in 2004 as part of the Centre for Mental Health Research. The Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project and Dynamic Analyses to Optimising Ageing (DYNOPTA) are two studies that are central to the research unit’s work.

The PATH project provides information on mental health and well being, cognition, genetics and brain ageing. The project aims to track and define the lifespan course of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and cognitive ability, identify environmental risk and protective factors within these domains, and examine the relationships between depression, anxiety and substance abuse with cognitive ability and dementia.

“The PATH project is really unique because we’re looking at young, middle-aged and older people,” Anstey says.

“We’ve taken a whole set of people from the electoral roll, we’re following them up and seeing who ends up showing cognitive decline and, ultimately, dementia.

“We’re looking at some of the risk factors in mid-life associated with very subtle cognitive decline and we’re also collaborating with ANU Medical School to look at cardiovascular health in mid-life.

“We’re able to look at risk factors and health behaviours to determine how they affect long-term outcomes – there’s currently no other study in Australia that is doing that.”
 
Although researchers are only half way through the project, they have already made some interesting findings. One of these initial findings was that light drinkers outperformed abstainers in every age group in a series of tasks that measure the brain’s ability to process and retain information.

Anstey says we should not jump to the conclusion that drinking a couple of glasses of wine every night will enhance our ability to think. But she says evidence suggests that “safe levels” of alcohol consumption support positive ageing.

There are many ways people can age well - not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight reading, riding a bicycle, spending time with friends and undertaking a university course are just some lifestyle choices to consider.
 
Anstey says the DYNOPTA project is “really innovative” because it has the biggest dataset of older adults in Australia with more than 50,000 participants and pools nine Australian longitudinal ageing studies, which involve repeated observations over long periods of time. The project focuses on four outcomes that significantly contribute to the burden of disease and disability: dementia and cognition, mental health, sensory disability and mobility limitations.

“We can look at: what’s ageing like when you get over 90? What is mental health like in the 90s? What is normal cognitive decline? Through the project we’re addressing some major policy issues around ageing in Australia and internationally.”

The study’s researchers have already been able to start investigating rates of expected dementia prevalence and do modeling of different health futures.

“Epidemiology gives you a lot of answers to things that you can’t get any other way,” Professor Anstey says.

The researchers use this information about factors affecting the health and well being of populations to determine who is ageing well and their lifestyles more broadly, including social networks and volunteering.

Another key focus of the Ageing Research Unit is to develop national capacity in ageing research through postgraduate and postdoctoral training. It aims to produce researchers with outstanding methodological skills and a sound grounding in the central theoretical frameworks of lifespan development and ageing. Fourteen graduate students are undertaking research projects related to ageing and cognitive decline.
 
The studies’ findings will help inform policymakers, which Professor Anstey hopes will lead to better outcomes for Australia’s ageing population.
 
“At the moment there isn’t a lot of evidence around older adults in a number of areas so decisions are being made based on what people think,” Professor Anstey says.

“We’ve got more people living to older ages than ever before - there are things we simply don’t know about what happens at ages 80 and 90. People are healthier and are living longer so we’re actually charting new territories. We’ve got to be careful we’re not making assumptions based on what it used to be like when you retired at 65 and your life expectancy might have been 70.”

Professor Anstey says academics “can make a difference” and they have a responsibility to provide policymakers with evidence-based research so the right decisions are made.

“The thought that we can discover ways to enable people to age better and optimise their brain function motivates me to do this research. There are public health initiatives that can delay or maybe prevent cognitive decline.”