ABOUT US
Background
In the next 35 years, the number of Australians aged 65 and older will increase from 4.2 million to 8.8 million people. Additionally, those aged 85 and older will triple from 500,000 to 1.5 million people.
In response to our rapidly ageing population, we need to better understand the risk factors associated with health issues in older Australians as well as factors associated with healthy ageing.
The Original Memory & Ageing Study (MAS1)
The original Memory & Ageing Study (MAS1), launched in 2005, profiled the rates and risk factors for age-related health conditions in older Australians born between 1910 and 1930. Generational shifts are occurring in chronic disease risk factor profiles within the Australian population.
Older adults today have more education than previous generations, as well as access to more health-related information. However, it is not known if there are age-related brain changes in successive generations of older people or whether lifestyle changes across generations impact healthy ageing.
Further, we do not know how risk factors for chronic conditions are changing and how this will affect older adults’ mental, physical, and cognitive health or if there are generational changes in resilience to ill health.
Finally, how these changes impact health service use also remains unknown.
“Researchers do not know what changes to expect in the rates of these age-related conditions and in their risk and protective factors.”
The Memory & Ageing Study 2 (MAS2)
The Memory & Ageing Study 2 (MAS2) aims to assess the generational change in four domains of older people’s health:
physical health,
psychological health,
social health,
cognitive/brain health.
MAS2 will assess generational changes by repeating comprehensive cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments of a defined population, and the associated use of health services.
MAS2 will examine what changes have occurred in Sydney’s next generation of 70-90 year-olds in these four health domains and in risk and protective factors.
What will MAS2 do?
MAS2 is a 5-year study that will extend the methodology of MAS1 to include novel approaches:
innovative blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease (AD),
digital neuropsychological assessments,
better blood pressure measures.
MAS2 will evaluate new tools for measuring and methods of analysing risk and resilience. MAS2 will link up with large, administrative datasets to enable the examination of changes in the use of health services.
MAS2 will help us determine whether generational changes have occurred in population health and risk factors for and protective factors against poor health. This evidence will help plan services and health policy and better target preventative strategies for Australia's newest generation of older adults.
Who can participate in MAS2?
People aged 70-90 years old who:
Live in the federal government areas of Kingsford-Smith or Wentworth in Sydney (Local Government Areas: Randwick, Botany, Waverley and Woollahra)
Are fluent in English
Can see and hear well (with glasses or hearing aid/s if needed)
Have a family member or close friend who can answer questions about your health
Do not live in residential aged care
Do not have dementia, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, or a developmental disability
Do not have a life-threatening disease or are receiving treatment for cancer
Do not have a severe psychiatric disorder (such as psychosis or bipolar disorder)
Did not take part in the original Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS1) which started in 2005
I am interested in joining MAS2
If you are interested in joining MAS2, please click here to express your interest.