Multimodal cardiovascular modelling for predicting and preventing disability in TILDA
Increasing proportions of older adults will lead to an increased prevalence of age-related health problems, and long-term care systems. The issues are numerous and complex. In response to these challenges, 'ageing' has become a research priority both nationally and internationally. TILDA aims to improve population health by providing insight into potentially new modifiable risk factors that can be used in screening tests for clinical and public health practice, and new treatments. Effective interventions that target key risk factors and at-risk populations are essential to control the negative aspects of ageing. TILDA measures a wide number of novel objective autonomic function and vascular health measures (i.e. Heart Rate Variability, Orthostatic Intolerance, Pulse Wave Velocity, Orthostatic Blood Pressure Responses, accelerometry, cerebral perfusion) which will help provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between autonomic function and disease processes and provide an opportunity to study disability associated with global cardiovascular risk.
Despite the strong history of cardiovascular health research in Ireland and policy implementation, the area of policy and implementation especially in secondary prevention and health promotion i.e. the structured and efficient translation of research evidence into policy and practice remains an under-researched field. Given the current economic climate, ways to minimise cost are of government priority, which provides an opportunity to rapidly implement new policy and practice initiatives that demonstrate cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, our sample is representative at the population level. Not only will relationships be determined between individual variables, but we can also assess how predictive they are in the population. This work may help us untangle the role of cardiovascular disease across all autonomic function measures in future disability, thus providing an opportunity for more healthy-life years in the ageing population.
- Award Date
- 29 June 2017
- Award Value
- €369984
- Principal Investigator
- Professor Richard Reilly
- Host Institution
- Trinity College Dublin
- Scheme
- Investigator Led Projects