UAB Launches New Study on Aging With $2.8 Million Grant From NIA

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care has been awarded a five-year, $2.8 million grant to study factors that help adults age 75 and older maintain independence and mobility even after experiencing serious illness, hospitalizations and more.

February 17, 2010

Richard Allman. Download image.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care has been awarded a five-year, $2.8 million grant to study factors that help adults age 75 and older maintain independence and mobility even after experiencing serious illness, hospitalizations and more.

The grant, from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the National Institutes of Health, will fund the UAB Study of Aging II, providing information needed to develop new approaches to optimize the ability of persons in this age group to remain mobile and participate socially.   

This new study will build on Phase I of the UAB Study of Aging, in which investigators created and documented the importance of a tool called Life-Space Assessment to measure mobility and social participation. The Life-Space Assessment analyzes how frequently an older adult moves through five different life-space zones: the bedroom, home, yard, neighborhood and town. The assessment also records how much outside assistance the individual needs to navigate those zones.

The five-minute assessment results in a score that ranges from zero to 120, with higher scores reflecting greater mobility. A low score on the Life-Space Assessment or a decline in the life-space score predict the likelihood of disability, nursing home admission and death. 

"Access to transportation, improving care for persons with diabetes and heart failure, reducing symptoms such as pain and fatigue and increasing physical activity all are potential ways to help older adults maintain life-space mobility," said Richard Allman, M.D., professor and director of the Birmingham/Atlanta VA Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), the UAB Center for Aging and the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care.

"However, persons over the age of 75 require special attention to help them maintain mobility and social participation," Allman said. "The UAB Study of Aging II will identify the most important ways to prevent mobility declines in this particular age group." 

Allman is the project director of the UAB Study of Aging and the principal investigator of Phase II, along with Patricia Sawyer, Ph.D., co-principal investigator. Other investigators are Cynthia Brown, M.D., Michael Crowe, Ph.D., Julie Locher, Ph.D., Christine Ritchie, M.D., Jeffrey Roseman, M.D., Ph.D., and David Roth, Ph.D.

About the UAB Center for Aging

The UAB Center for Aging is a world leader in creating and using knowledge that will optimize function, enhance management of illness and reduce health disparities among older adults. The center involves an interdisciplinary community of more than 200 faculty members and staff working together to promote the health and well-being of older persons and their families through research, training students and faculty to conduct research, educating students and professionals, and supporting community programs and specialty patient care.