G-TRAC Award Winner
On Friday 11 October, Mark Thompson, of the University of Adelaide’s Geriatrics Training and Research with Aged Care (G-TRAC) Centre based on campus at Resthaven Paradise, won the ‘Best Oral Presentation: Clinical Higher Degree Students Prize’.
Mark was presented the award by the Hon Stephen Wade MLC, Minister for Health and Wellbeing at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH) Research Expo, hosted by the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research, which showcases the range of research undertaken at the institute and TQEH.
Mark is a current Postgraduate and PhD candidate with G-TRAC, and investigator with The University of Adelaide’s Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Frailty and Healthy Ageing—both of which have close connections with Resthaven. The G-TRAC Centre works in partnership with Resthaven, consumers, aged and health care providers and other key stakeholders.
The Resthaven G-TRAC travel grant was used to bring Associate Professor Olga Theou to Adelaide. Professor Theou supported the design and analysis of results for Mark’s study.
Mark presented his research findings at the expo on the importance of repeated measurement of frailty for mortality prediction in older adults. The study used data from the North West Adelaide Health Study, a population sample of community–dwelling older adults.
‘It was found that frailty classification was a significant long term predictor of mortality (up to 10 years); however, prediction was improved by repeated measurement at a follow-up 4 ½ years later’, says Mark.
‘The clinical implications of our findings are that a regular review of frailty status is required in older adults. This is necessary, as frailty is a dynamic condition where a downward spiral is not always inevitable—and improvement in frailty status is possible.
‘There is a range of interventions that can potentially reverse or delay frailty, including exercise focused on strength training, and dietary strategies to increase intake—particularly of protein.’
‘We will pursue innovative education and research programs aimed at increasing the capacity, knowledge and skills of the clinical workforce involved in providing health and aged care to older people.’
The study will soon be published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.