NIA HELPS AGS SPUR RESEARCH AGENDA IN NEEDED AREAS

In early March, representatives from the American Geriatrics Society and a host of officials from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) gathered in Atlanta for Research Agenda for Comorbid Disease and Multiple Morbidity in an Aging Society, the second of three AGS-initiated conferences, collectively known as “From Bedside to Bench,” made possible by a grant from the NIA.

At the start of the grant period, the AGS Research Committee selected three areas of exploration with substantial rele- vance to the aging community, based on the emerging need among clinicians for related research. A successful conference on frailty last year was followed by a related session at the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.

At this year’s conference, the goal of the assembled research- ers was to cull the expertise of the participants to lay out a research agenda for comorbidity that can be adopted at the national level, leading to improved health outcomes for older adults.

Comorbid conditions lessen quality of life and complicate diagnosis and disease management, posing a series of unique challenges to health care professionals. A great deal of research is thought to exclude older subjects with significant comorbidity or multiple diseases. As a result, definitions and measurements are not easily accessible to geriatric care providers. Placing current knowledge and conventional wisdom about comorbidity into the context of caring for an aging population will ultimately lead to more research and improvements in clinical practice.

Specifically, conference attendees sought to more fully define the public health and clinical problems of comorbidity as indicated by the evidence, to lend better conceptual definition to the problems of multiple comorbidity and its relationship to aging frailty and disability, as well as adverse clinical outcomes, to identify a variety of related research areas and questions, and to consider various methodological challenges and approaches in pursuing the agenda.

Throughout the conference, attendees presented information on an array of special topics related to comorbidity research. Presentation topics included changes in function among community-dwelling older adults, the classification of the severity of chronic disease, aging with HIV, data sources relevant to comorbidity and aging management, and the role of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and alcohol use in comorbidity.

Officials at the NIA have devoted increasing attention to comorbid conditions, as evidenced by its Comorbidity Task Force and other initiatives. The actions of AGS in convening the conference are building on this momentum, laying the groundwork for a new generation of research. Look for consensus recommendations from the conference to be presented in a special session at the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, FL, next month, as well as written consensus recommendations at www.americangeriatrics.org later this year.

Regards,
Linda Hiddemen Barondess
Executive Vice-President