View clinical trials related to Aging.
Filter by:Background and overall goal: Poor comprehension and medication adherence are common in older people, especially after hospitalizations, in case of changes or prescriptions of new therapeutic regimes. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidomain intervention with an integrated care approach, in improving medication adherence in older people after hospital discharge. A secondary aim is investigate the determinants of poor comprehension and medication adherence in such individuals. Target population: The project will involve older patients hospitalized in a Geriatric Department and discharged at home, and (when present) their caregivers. Methods and assessments: Upon hospital discharge, data from the comprehensive geriatric assessment and information on the present hospitalization and prescribed therapies will be collected for all participants. The comprehension of medical recommendations reported in the discharge summary will be evaluated for all patients/caregiver before and after the routine explanation by treating physicians. Participants will be then randomized in intervention vs. control group. The intervention will include: first, educational training of patients/caregivers at hospital discharge by a multidisciplinary team; second, after hospital discharge, a phone recall on the prescribed therapies and a one-week phone consultant service managed by a geriatrician, supported by the multidisciplinary team, to address potential concerns on prescribed treatments. Control group will follow usual care. After 7 days medication adherence will be assessed for both study groups through structured phone interviews. At 30 and 90 days from discharge, data on falls, rehospitalizations and vital status will be collected through hospital records.
The GEMLIFE Study is a 12-month clinical trial for menopausal women. The purpose of this study is to promote an improved aging process for women in menopause through lifestyle changes. The changes will include a heart healthy diet, structured walking program, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. During the study, the investigators will monitor components of your genetic make-up that will tell us how you are aging. Investigators will also monitor bloodwork for inflammation that can affect medical conditions. Study participants may qualify if you are within 5 years of your last menstrual period and have well controlled medical conditions. There is no cost to participants to enroll in the study- only potential benefits to the participant's health and aging process.
To prospectively determine the burden of hypoglycemia (minutes spent below 70 mg/dl per day, measured by continuous glucose monitor (CGM)) among residents of long term care facilities (LTC) with a diagnosis of type 1 or type 2 diabetes including key clinical subgroups (living in skilled nursing facility (SNF) or nursing home (NH), on different hypoglycemic medications). This aim will be achieved by recruiting 300 residents with diabetes in 4 LTC facilities. All participants will undergo masked CGM for 10 days.
Geroscience is an emerging interdisciplinary field of study in gerontological sciences. With emphasis on understanding the mechanistic drivers of aging, it seeks translational approaches that could eventually be applied to improve human healthspan and delay age-associated chronic diseases. Contrary to popular opinion that aging is irreversible, advances in geroscience research have demonstrated that aging is modifiable and inhibiting or activating specific molecular pathways can improve healthspan and extend lifespan in model organisms. Advocates of geroscience take the view that age-related chronic diseases are best treated by slowing the aging process, rather than using the prevailing disease-centric approach of addressing each disease alone. Thus, the concept is that biological aging, rather than chronological aging, is amenable to intervention. In this regard, geroscientists are at the forefront of longevity medicine in rigorously testing novel supplements, drugs and other prophylactics that can enhance healthspan. Some of these interventions involve repurposing existing drugs such as rapamycin, a well-known immunosuppressant, at different dosing regimens to specifically target biological hallmarks of aging. This study will investigate the effects of alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG), an endogenous metabolite, on biomarkers of aging in middle-aged residents of Singapore.
A third of older people take five or more regular medications (polypharmacy) potentially increasing the risk of side-effects, hospital admission and death, with higher risk among people living with frailty. National recommendations suggest that medications taken by frail older people should be reviewed annually by GPs to identify and reduce/ stop inappropriate medications (deprescribing). Yet this does not happen routinely due to GPs' lack of time, increased workloads and worries about stopping medicines. Recent recommendations suggest involving other non-medical prescribers such as practice-pharmacists and advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) in reviewing medications. However, it is unknown how staff could work together most effectively and whether they have any training needs. This research will investigate how practice-pharmacists, ANPs and GPs could best work together with patients living with frailty to perform regular medication reviews. There are four work packages (WPs). 1. Review literature to identify what makes a successful medication review and how to safely deprescribe. 2. Interviews with GPs, practice-pharmacists, ANPs, frail older patients and carers will investigate where medication review should take place, the role of involved parties, type of medications that could be deprescribed, staff training needs, barriers and facilitators for implementation, and strategies to address them. 3. Information from WP1&2 will be used to develop the intervention: a structured medication review process using pharmacists, ANPs and GPs and involving frail patients and their families in decisions about medications. This will be refined through workshops with service users, clinicians and commissioners. A training programme to implement the intervention and increase staff confidence in deprescribing will be developed alongside the intervention. 4. Feasibility study for staff in four GP practices to be trained and to implement the intervention.(this will be subject to further amendment).
Most individuals are aware of the benefits to health of regular physical activity and have good intentions to exercise. Yet, 1.4 billion people worldwide are inactive, which suggests that turning intention into action can be challenging. Recent findings show that the intention-action gap could be explained by negative automatic reactions (which is a component of dual-task theory) to stimuli associated with physical activity. This gap is particularly concerning in older adults, who are more likely to spontaneously associate physical activity with fear, pain, or discomfort. To promote physical activity, the current project proposes to train older adults to suppress their automatic attraction toward sedentary stimuli and to respond positively to physical-activity stimuli. This evidence-based and low-cost intervention aims to improve physical functioning and quality of life for these population. The results will inform public-health policies and improve clinical interventions that aim to counteract a global health problem: the pandemic of physical inactivity.
The goal of this pilot observational study is to learn about the feasibility of collecting patient-reported data and stool and blood samples from patients age 65 and older treated with aromatase inhibitor therapy for breast cancer. Participants will be treated with standard of care aromatase inhibitor therapy and will undergo serial phlebotomy, complete patient-reported questionnaires, and submit serial stool samples. The main exploratory translational questions it aims to obtain preliminary data for are: - What are the effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy on biomarkers of aging? - What are the effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy on the microbiome? These data will be used for the development of future definitive studies.
With the increasing regularity and intensity of hot weather and heat waves, there is an urgent need to develop heat-alleviation strategies able to provide targeted protection for heat-vulnerable older adults. While air-conditioning provides the most effective protection from extreme heat, it is inaccessible for many individuals. Air-conditioning is also energy intensive, which can strain the electrical grid and, depending on the source of electricity generation, contribute to increasing green house gas emissions. For these reasons, recent guidance has advocated the use of electric fans as a simple and sustainable alternative to air-conditioning. To date, however, only one study has assessed the efficacy of fan use in older adults and demonstrated that fans accelerate increases in body temperature and heart rate in a short-duration (~2 hours) resting exposure to 42°C with increasing ambient humidity from 30-70%. While subsequent modelling has suggested that fans can improve heat loss via sweat evaporation in healthy older adults at air temperatures up to 38°C, there is currently no empirical data to support these claims. Further, that work assumed older adults were seated in front of a pedestal fan generating an airflow of 3·5-4·5 m/s at the front of the body. This airflow cannot be attained by most marketed pedestal fans. Studies are therefore needed to evaluate the efficacy of fans for preventing hyperthermia and the associated physiological burden in older adults in air temperatures below 38°C and determine whether the cooling effect of fans, if any, is evident at lower rates of airflow. To address these knowledge gaps, this randomized crossover trial will evaluate body core temperature, cardiovascular strain, dehydration, and thermal comfort in adults aged 65-85 years exposed for 8 hours to conditions experienced during hot weather and heat waves in North America simulated using a climate chamber (36°C, 45% relative humidity). Each participant will complete three randomized exposures that will differ only in the airflow generated at the front of the body via an electric pedestal fan: no airflow (control), low airflow (~2 m/s), and high airflow (~4 m/s). While participants will spend most of the 8-hour exposure seated in front of the fan, they will also complete 4 x 10 min periods of 'activities of daily living' (~2-2.5 METS, light stepping) at ~2 hour intervals to more accurately reflect activity patterns in the home.
This study will investigate the effects of 12 months of high-intensity progressive resistance training compared with a control group on fall-rate in older adults with sarcopenia.
The overall objective of STOP-FALLS is to test whether a patient-centered deprescribing intervention that focuses on CNS-active medications reduces medically treated falls among older adults. Our aims are: AIM 1: Adapt and pilot-test an evidence-based medication reduction intervention for use in an integrated health care system. AIM 2: Implement and evaluate the adapted intervention using a cluster-randomized controlled trial design. Aim 3: Assess barriers and facilitators to intervention implementation.