E-newsletter – December 2012

In this issue:

Message from the Scientific Director

As we are moving towards the end of another year – and thus reminded of our advancement in age – I am very pleased to share with you this Newsletter that reflects the numerous activities that have been carried out by the Institute of Aging over the past months. At the same time, I would like to bring your attention some upcoming actions that are currently being undertaken or initiated by the Institute of Aging.

As you probably know, the Institute embarked, in 2012, on a four phase strategic planning process to define our priorities in research on aging and knowledge translation for the next five years (2013-2018). The final phase in this process was the series of Townhall meetings across Canada. The "Speaking of Aging" Tour, which took place from September 5th to October 10th 2012, took us to nine Provinces and 16 Cities throughout Canada. Through the Tour, we had the opportunity to exchange with over 600 attendees, 60% of which were knowledge providers and 40% of which were knowledge users including clinicians, stakeholders and public. This diversity in participants allowed for an excellent exchange and the representation of a variety of perspectives and points of view to be expressed. We wish to thank all those who participated in these meetings; your feedback will help to ensure that our 2013-18 Strategic Plan is fully inclusive and representative of the real needs and opportunities of the Canadian population. Your suggestions and ideas for the actions that will allow us to implement the Plan were most useful, fully creative and with an expected high impact on the quality of health and wellness for all of us. The Institute is currently finalizing the Plan based on the feedback received throughout the Tour, and is also developing its first action plan for 2013-2014.

Another important aspect of the Tour was having the opportunity to meet with the research community in Aging across Canada. This is, and will remain, an important focus of our Institute's activities. In this vein, we recently actively participated in the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in Vancouver in October, as well as in the meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in San Diego in November.

The Institute of Aging is also committed to helping network our excellent Canadian researchers internationally and to see them take the lead (see the result from the ERA-AGE competition in this Newsletter). For this reason, we have been very active in a number of international events and partnerships. For example, and building on our official participation in the European Union Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND), I had the opportunity to represent Canada in Washington DC at a meeting between JPND partners and the US National Institutes of Health. The meeting was intended to advance the idea of the United States also getting involved in the JPND in order to enhance US - EU Research Collaboration including, of course, Canada as well. Representatives from the Executive Office of President Obama were also in attendance at this meeting and were very appreciative of Canada's work to date in this area.

Our international outreach does not limit itself to the topic area covered by the JPND. IA is also in the process of becoming a full partner in the newest Joint Programme – More Years, Better Lives that focuses on the challenges and opportunities of demographic change. This is the follow up to the now-ended ERA-AGE initiative, which is described later in this Newsletter. Through our involvement in these ongoing and future initiatives, the Institute of Aging will facilitate insertion and leadership of Canadian researchers in International teams. This strategy has been seen to be very effective when one looks at the results of the recent ERA Age 2 funding opportunity "Active and Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course" that was announced in early November by the Honourable Alice Wong, Minister of State (Seniors), on behalf of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health.

As you will see throughout this November Newsletter, the Institute has been very active and engaged with our community over the last months. We do not foresee this activity diminishing in the future… expect information-full newsletters to hit your email in the coming year.

Yves Joanette
Scientific Director

IA News

We want to welcome our three newest IAB members:

  • Jo‐Ann Fellows, Past President of the Third Age Center from Saint Thomas University in Fredericton.
  • Alex Mihailidis, PhD, Ing., Barbara G. Stymiest Research Chair in Rehabilitation Technology at the University of Toronto and Toronto Rehab Institute.
  • David Westaway, PhD, Director, Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, University of Alberta.

Between August and December 2012, the IA has been unstoppable. Dr. Joanette presented at the final conference of European Research Area on Ageing ERA-AGE 2 on September 11-12, 2012. This meeting was held in Brussels and marked the achievements of the consortium since its inception in 2004. Dr. Joanette's presentation was on "Multinational Synergy to the Benefit of the Aging Population" aiming to remind the Joint Call of current research on ageing put forward by a number of the participating members in ERA-AGE 2, to share the benefits felt by CIHR in participating in ERA-AGE 2, and to envision the future of such collaborative approaches between the European Union and Canada. It was a wonderful opportunity for partners to exchange on their experience within ERA-AGE and get a report on different programs from the European Programme of Ageing Research: Active and Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course, as well as to get connected with other initiative such as the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) "More Years, Better Lives - The Potential and Challenges of Demographic Change".

In October 1st Dr. Joanette presented at the Scientific meeting of the Réseau québecois de recherche sur le vieIllissement (RQRV), about "The Canadian Perspective of the future of research on Aging" where he explained the main objectives of the IA and some of the results from the strategic planning read show. On October 11, Dr. Joanette met with Lisa Warth from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to exchange perspectives on the future of research on Aging. Dr. Warth was one of the members of the group that produced the wonderful video on Aging that is worth watching.

A few days later the IA participated in the International Invited Symposium (IIS) on Age-Friendly Rural and Remote Communities, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, October 15 - 17, 2012 hosted by The University of Manitoba Centre on Aging. The Symposium was developed in partnership with the Manitoba Seniors and Healthy Aging Secretariat (SHAS) and in collaboration with organizations including the Rural Development Institute of Brandon University, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation on Aging (IFA). The Symposium invited fifty delegates, including ten "distinguished seniors" along with representation from research, public policy and civil society interests.

The program included public Forums with "distinguished seniors" sharing their perspective on what "age-friendly" looks like within their culture; three half-day working sessions with key-note presentations and breakout workshops in pursuit of the IIS goals; a "table-topic" evening where IIS delegates will choose one of six topics to explore; WHO and IFA perspectives in support of age-friendly rural and remote community development. Some of the outcomes from this symposium included understanding partnership, leadership and sustainability as key challenges to success on Age-friendly rural and remote communities; establishing a "community of practice" in support of sustaining age-friendly rural and remote community development.

Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) held its annual scientific meeting on October 18 to 20, 2012 in Vancouver. The IA was incredibly active at this conference as we sponsored some keynote presentations, sponsored and participated in the Poster competition and presented several awards such as CIHR-IA Special Recognition Prizes, the Betty Havens Award for Knowledge Translation in Aging and the CIHR-IA Student Poster Competition Prizes (see the section or Rising Stars). The Honourable Alice Wong, Minister of State (Seniors), attended the CAG as well and she presented a number recognition prizes of researchers and trainees in the field of aging research along with Dr. Yves Joanette, Scientific Director for the CIHR Institute of Aging. The IA also took the opportunity of this large Canadian conference to meet with trainees and young investigators as well as with the Directors of Canadian Research Centres on Aging. In addition, the IA presented the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging: A New and Inclusive Way of Doing Research; as well as a Pre-release and Discussion Forum on Institute's Strategic Plan for 2013-2018.

On November 8th the Honourable Alice Wong, Minister of State (Seniors), on behalf of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced Harper Government funding for five international research projects to help keep seniors active. The projects reflect a diverse range of important issues facing seniors such as hearing loss, assisted living technologies, continence, mobility in urban areas and care in residential facilities.

The Strategic Planning of the Institute of Aging 2013-2018 has also been an important activity over these last months. After consultations with the stakeholders and our Advisory Board, the final step of a cross Canada townhall roadshow entitled "Speaking of Aging" has been completed. From all the information that has been gathered, it seems clear that the Institute of Aging will in fact be the key player in ensuring that knowledge is generated to enable evidence-based decisions and promote prevention, care, management and better health systems for all aging Canadians within the diversity of our society. In the development of the strategic plan we identified some of the most important needs compiled them within two main dimensions:

  • Optimizing Health and Wellness in the Trajectory of Aging
  • Facing the Complex Health Challenges of Older Adults

From these dimensions, five priorities have been identified that will determine the actions to be taken such as:

  • Institute-initiated specific requests for applications
  • Deployment/adjustments of larger CIHR initiatives including other Institutes
  • Partnerships to be developed with all stakeholders
    • Policy makers for social innovation
    • Industry for commercial innovation
  • Partnerships with other Canadian and International agencies to offer Canadian researchers facilitated global insertion and leadership

As mentioned previously, the IA is in the process of writing the final version of the strategic plan as well as the 2013-2014 Action Plan that will be available in the spring of 2013.

International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease News

The EU Joint Programme - Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) is a European Union member state-led initiative to tackle one of the 'grand challenges' which faces European society, namely that of neurodegenerative diseases. JPND first Management Committee Professor Anthony Phillips, from INMHA, the co-lead of the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease attended on September 27-28.

Dr Joanette met with astronaut Robert Thirsk to discuss possible ways to collaborate in the field of research in Alzheimer's disease. This meeting was the topic of Dr Thirsk's first blog on October 12 2012 entitled "Lunch with Yves".

CLSA News

On September 28, Dr. Yves Joanette represented CIHR at the official grand opening and launch of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) at McMaster University.

Recruitment of the 50,000 participants who will take part in Canada's largest study of aging is nearly one-third complete. More than 15,000 men and women from across the country have signed up to be part of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Participants, who are between the ages of 45 to 85, provide information either through telephone interviews or in-home interviews and site visits. The first wave of data collection from the CLSA Tracking cohort – or 60-minute telephone interviews – will conclude in spring 2013. Recruitment for CLSA Comprehensive cohort will continue until 2015.

CLSA highlights:

  • 10 Data Collection Sites (DCS) have launched across the country. Construction of the site at the University of British Columbia is underway. The DCS is the hub for data collection for the Comprehensive cohort. Participants take part in physical assessments and are given the option of providing blood and urine samples.
  • The CLSA hosted a Grand Opening and Showcase in September to mark the national launch of the study. The two-day event, held at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, brought together nearly 50 researchers in aging, representatives of funding agencies, government and university officials, as well as strategic and scientific partners of the CLSA.
  • The CLSA is continuing to actively engage a number of potential partners. Current partnerships are now acknowledged on the Partners section of the CLSA website.
  • Media launches were held in Montreal and Surrey this fall. In September, Dr. Christina Wolfson, CLSA co-principal investigator, cut the ribbon to officially launch the Montreal component of the CLSA. She was joined by Dr. Yves Joanette, scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Aging, and Dr. Paul Lasko, scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Genetics. In October, Dr. Andrew Wister, lead site investigator at Simon Fraser University (SFU), officially launched the CLSA at SFU's Surrey campus.
  • One of the underlying principles of the CLSA is that the data be made available to the research community as soon as it is feasible while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of participants. The CLSA Data and Sample Access Policy and the Data Request Form are now available on the CLSA website under the Researchers section. Registration is required to view the forms.

For the latest CLSA news, visit our website. You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Rising Stars

The Institute congratulates the winners of the CAG-CIHR Student Poster Competition described above.

  • In the Masters Category: Michelle Dellamora, Western University. How Age-Friendly is This City? Strategies for Measuring Age-Friendliness.
  • In the Ph.D. category: Brodie M. Sakakibara, University of British Columbia. Sex as a moderator of the relationship between confidence with using a manual wheelchair and frequency of participation.
  • In the Post doctoral category: Ben Mortenson, Simon Fraser University. A Novel Assistive Technology Intervention for Older Adults with Disabilities and their Informal Caregivers: Results from a Preliminary Randomized Control Trial.

CIHR-IA Age+ Prize
The CIHR Institute of Aging Age+ Prize recognizes excellence in research on aging carried out in Canada by graduate and postdoctoral students and clinical residents from all disciplines, working in the field of aging. It is awarded to the author of a published, scientific article on aging. The Institute of Aging is pleased to announce the latest winners:

  • Andrea Burden, University of Toronto
    Burden AM, Paterson JM, Solomon DH, Mamdani M, Juurlink DN, Cadarette SM. Bisphosphonate prescribing, persistence and cumulative exposure in Ontario, Canada. Osteoporos Int; 2012; 23:1075-82.
  • Sébastien Grenier, Université du Québec à Montréal / Centre de recherche IUGM
    Grenier, S., Potvin, O., Hudon, C., Boyer, R., Préville, M., Desjardins, L., & Bherer, L. (2012). Twelve-month prevalence and correlates of subthreshold and threshold anxiety in community-dwelling older adults with cardiovascular diseases. Journal of Affective Disorders, 136(3), 724-732.
  • Erin Johns, Concordia University
    Johns, E. K., Phillips, N. A., Belleville, S., Goupil, D., Babins, L., Kelner, N., Ska, B., Gilbert, B., Massoud, F., de Boysson, C., Duncan, H. D., & Chertkow, H. (2012). The profile of executive functioning in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Disproportionate deficits in inhibitory control. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18, 1-15. doi: 10.1017/S1355617712000069.
  • Michel Melançon, Sherbrooke University
    Melancon MO, Lorrain D, Dionne IJ (2011). Exercise Increases Tryptophan Availability to the Brain in Older Men Aged 57-70 Years. Med Sci Sports Exerc Nov 2 [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 22051569.
  • Olivier Potvin, Sherbrooke University
    Potvin, O., Lorrain, D., Forget, H., Dube, M., Grenier, S., Preville, M., & Hudon, C. Sleep quality and 1-year incident cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults. Sleep, 35(4), 491-499, 2012.

For information and how to apply for the Age+ Prize, visit the IA website.

CIHR Partnership Award

Since 2002, CIHR has recognized outstanding partnerships with the CIHR Partnership Award. Each year, the award is given to a partnership that is innovative and has a significant impact on health outcomes or health research. We are happy to announce that the 2012 Award winner is the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (ONS). The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study was set up in 2005 to measure, quantify and map different aspects of the social and economic determinants of health across the city. Team members worked together to collect this information on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis. They gathered data about obesity rates, numbers of parks or green spaces, quality of housing, and much more. The idea was that with these figures in hand, governments and residents could better address social challenges by directing interventions based on each neighbourhood's needs.

The study was funded by CIHR's Institute of Population and Public Health, but the work of the partners involved in the project may be of interest to CIHR-IA's research community, as well. In particular, the Study gathered data about the demographic structure of each neighbourhood, so the Study data could provide an interesting foundation for looking at the social determinants of health of aging populations in specific neighbourhood communities. The Study is an excellent example of cross-disciplinary work (as geography researchers worked alongside health researchers) and cross-sectoral partnership (as community organizations played a large role in gathering and validating data).

Recent Funding Highlights

IA applauds all our investigators who have been successful in the most recent competitions. Of the many funded, we focus in this issue on the European Research Area on Ageing and China-Canada Team Grants on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders competitions.

Six international research projects were funded under the European Research Area on Ageing (ERA-AGE2) call, Europe's first joint research program in aging. An impressive five of the six projects on multidisciplinary research projects on Active and Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course include Canadian researchers. The CIHR Institute of Aging is investing close to $1 million of a total international partner investment of approximately $5 million. Canadian researchers will be working with partners in Finland, Sweden, Israel, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, France and Norway.

Dr Yves Joanette joined Minister Alice Wong in an announcement on Nov. 8th. We congratulate the recipients of these grants and highlight the CIHR-Institute of Aging funded recipients below:

  • Adrian Wagg, University of Alberta. Continence across Continents to Upend Stigma and Dependence
  • Alex Mihailidis, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Ambient Assistive Living Technologies for Wellness, Engagement, and Long Life
  • Yan Kestens, Université de Montréal. Understanding the Role of Contrasting Urban Contexts in Healthy Aging: An International Study of Daily Mobility and Active Living Using Wearable Sensor Devices across Cohorts
  • Pat Armstrong, York University. Healthy Ageing in Residential Places
  • Bruce Schneider, University of Toronto. Hearing, Remembering, and Living Well: Paying Attention to Challenges of Older Adults in Noisy Environments

Team Grant: China-Canada Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders This program is partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The goal of this initiative is to promote the development of scientific co-operation between universities, hospitals, research institutes or affiliated research organizations in Canada and China through the support of collaborative research teams in the field of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders.

We congratulate the following grantees:

  • Serge Gauthier, McGill University. Diagnostic Biomarkers for pre-dementia Alzheimer Disease
  • James Woodgett, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. Investigation of the roles of GSK-3 isoforms in mediating A-beta, tau and insulin related Alzheimer-like synaptic, cholinergic impairments.

Brightest Minds
Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network
The Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network (TVN) is one of three new Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) that was recently supported. The TVN will develop, evaluate and disseminate information about the use of various technologies in the care of seriously ill elderly patients. It is headquartered at Queen's University. The Scientific Director is Daren Heyland.

Research Chair in Enhanced Seniors Care
Veronique Boscart, chairholder of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Schlegel Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in seniors care, will work with Conestoga's School of Health and Life Sciences and Community Services, in partnership with Schlegel Villages, to help advance post-secondary education research as well as services for seniors.

A recently published study by Stephen Robinovitch and Fabio Feldman in the Lancet finds falls in BC nursing homes are most commonly caused by incorrect weight shifting or tripping, rather than slipping, as commonly thought. By analyzing video footage of falls, the researchers found the most common activities leading to falls are "forward walking, standing quietly, or sitting down." The findings point to a need for risk assessment of the various activities engaged in by seniors, as well as improved prevention strategies.

For more information please visit: Harper Government Supports New Research in Seniors Care at Conestoga College.

Current Funding Opportunities

The 2013 annual Summer Program in Aging (SPA) will be held this year in partnership with Baycrest in the province of Ontario in May 2013. This program is designed to offer students and post-doctoral fellows involved in aging research an advanced research training program that crosses disciplines, sectors, institutions and geography.

The application process will be available on the Institute's website in January, 2013.

Did You Know?

Oskar Burger, anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute, while in Rostock in northern Germany, compared life expectancy and mortality risk at different ages in four population groups: in Japan since 1947, in Sweden since the middle of the 18th century, among a dozen hunter-gatherer tribes in Oceania, South America and Africa, and among wild and captive chimpanzees (from an article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in mid-October). According to Burger, the hunter-gatherers are equivalent to prehistoric humans as far as their life expectancy and mortality risk are concerned. His conclusion: the size of humans' increase in life expectancy constitutes an exception among primates. "The increase in life expectancy has affected only 4 of the 8,000 generations of humans who have existed," said Mr. Burger. "In industrial societies, a 72-year-old man's health is comparable to that of a 30-year-old hunter gatherer who has had practically no contact with modern medicine."1

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Mathieu Perreault, "De plus en plus vieux" (only in French), La Presse, November 12, 2012.

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