One of the biggest concerns for New Zealanders as they age is the loss of independence. After a lifetime of managing their own needs and care, many older Kiwis discover that they need assistance in doing day-to-day tasks. This loss of independence can be significant and confronting for many, especially those who have always prided themselves on their independence.
Professor Ngaire Kerse, as a GP and Geriatrician, has seen first-hand the impacts of the loss of independence for older people and the negative impacts that this can cause. So she set about building a comprehensive and integrated research programme to see if there were different ways to help New Zealanders age well, retain their independence for longer, and push back the threshold of disability.
She assembled top-notch researchers from all around the motu, experts in geriatric care, sleep, dental care, big data, plus practitioners in cultural, social, and technological methods who can help the research team enhance the quality of their outcomes. From there, the AWESSoM programme was developed.
One of the biggest concerns for New Zealanders as they age is the loss of independence. This loss can be significant and confronting for many, especially those who have always prided themselves on their independence.
About the research
The AWESSoM programme has four independent, yet related, research projects under one banner.
The first project is adapting Ngā Pou o Rongo, a kaupapa Māori and whānau-based lifestyle management programme that is co-created with participants to meet their needs and ensure impact. Ngā Pou o Rongo has been demonstrated to improve cardiovascular outcomes in older people and is a good model for widening the scope of the research to include Māori wellbeing, health, physical and social activity. Researchers are also looking into in the scalability and acceptability of use in adapting Ngā Pou o Rongo for wider use.
The second continues the Phase 1 Ageing Well research, Healthy Pacific Grandparents, and seeks to improve the lives of Pacific older people. It establishes co-created wellbeing programme that reflects the needs and desires of the community, and the research team will evaluate the impacts of this programme on Pacific wellbeing, physical and social activity, oral health, foot health, and more.
These two projects are engaging and trialing the ADL LifeCurve™ App, a new phone-based app that helps older people identify difficulties with daily activities and will suggest to solutions to maintain or recover function.
The third aspect of the AWESSoM programme is a comprehensive oral health and cognitive stimulation programme within aged care facilities. Themes of healthy sleep, oral health, mobility and cognition, complement social capital and community integration in a balanced programme involving older people across the ability spectrum. The aim of this phase is to design and evaluate strategies for improving the health and wellbeing of in-care residents.
Professor Kerse has seen first-hand the impacts of the loss of independence for older people and the negative impacts that this can cause. So she set about building a comprehensive research programme to see if there were different ways to help New Zealanders age well.
The fourth element uses big data to identify health complexities with the aim of pursuing new treatment strategies to tackle complex multi-morbidities. ‘Multimorbidity’, which may be defined as the presence of two or more chronic conditions with equal predominance, is common in many older people. For those living with multimorbidity, they are 3.5 times more likely to have problems with activities of daily living and 6 times more likely to have physical function limitations than those without, after adjusting for socioeconomic status and depression.
For clinicians, there is little guidance as to the best way to manage groups of diagnoses in the growing number of patients with multimorbidity. This project seeks to improve the function and wellbeing of older people living with multimorbidity through better understanding and management of these chronic conditions, and developing strategies for primary healthcare providers and residents of in-care facilities.
Outcomes
The research is still continuing and Ageing Well is excited to see how the outcome of this programme can help all New Zealanders age well.
{River photo by Alistair MacKenzie on Unsplash}
Research
