The number of older adults is increasing rapidly and older adults live longer with chronic disease and declining functional ability. These demographic changes lead to a tremendous strain on our health care system and high costs for society. Gaining more insights into the healthy ageing process is therefore of utmost importance.
The World Health Organization defines healthy ageing as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability of older adults, which depends on a person’s intrinsic capacity and on the environment the person lives in. This is an innovative and promising approach as it shifts away from the traditional focus on absence or presence of disease, or accumulation of deficits, to a function-based approach that enables early prevention of declines in functional ability.
In this project, a longitudinal measure for intrinsic capacity in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) will be developed. Intrinsic capacity trajectories during ageing will be investigated, and the researchers will examine whether these trajectories predict functional ability. Secondly, will be investigated how intrinsic capacity interacts with the in-home and neighbourhood environment using machine learning and longitudinal analyses techniques. Thirdly, the person-environment fit will be studied, taking into account the preferences and compensatory behaviours of older adults with regard to functioning in a free-living as well as in a controlled setting (‘living lab’, using videotaping/digital monitoring). This project will generate important new knowledge for the use of the intrinsic capacity model in research and in clinical practice to maintain functional ability in older adults and promote healthy ageing.
Four complementary teams from Amsterdam UMC, VU Amsterdam and University of Twente will link traditional epidemiologic research to machine learning techniques, and connect research in a ‘living lab’ to real world data. This project will be an important first step towards implementation of this innovative and comprehensive care model in clinical practice to prevent declines in functional ability in older adults.