Institute on Aging Seeks Long-Living Families to
Reveal Secrets to Long Healthy Life
Researchers will contact people near study sites -
Boston, New York and Pittsburgh
July
8, 2008 – WANTED: A few families that have a record of living a
long, long time. Although Americans are living longer, “extreme old age”
is still unusual and tends to run in some families, according to the
National Institute on Aging. The NIA, part of the National Institutes of
Health, is seeking long-lived families to help study the secrets to a
long healthy life.
Death rates for 8 of the 10 leading causes of death
in U.S. all dropped significantly in 2006; Alzheimer’s passed diabetes
becoming the sixth leading cause of death
In coming weeks, researchers in three regions -
near Boston, New York and Pittsburgh - will be contacting older people
to see if they and their families might be eligible and willing to
participate in the Long Life Family Study. The study is looking for
families with two or more healthy brothers and sisters who have lived to
old age and can be interviewed in person.
The study’s Website says, “If you or a family
member is over the age of 79, with a living sibling also over the age of
79, your family may be eligible to join the study. Because this is a
family study, we would like to enroll as many members of your family as
possible.”
“It is not so unusual to be very old these days,
but it is pretty rare to have living brothers and sisters in old age,
especially after 90 years of age. We are interested in studying these
families to find important clues about successful aging.”
"We’re interested in finding out why some families
age so well," said Winifred K. Rossi, deputy director of NIA’s Division
of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology and the NIA program official for
the study.
"By sharing information about their lives and
families with us, participants may help improve the health of future
generations — including their own children and grandchildren — by giving
us clues to the secrets of healthy longevity."
"We aim to enroll as many families with as many
long-lived members as possible,"Rossi continued "The more families and
the larger the size of each family enrolled, the better the chance we
can find meaningful results. We are seeking study participants primarily
from the regions near the three study centers, but we have the ability
to interview participants’ family members who live in other parts of the
country so that their information can be included."
Trained clinical staff will meet with study
participants in their communities to ask questions about their family
and health history and conduct some physical assessments and health
screening tests. Participants will also be asked for a small blood
sample to obtain genetic information. Genetic and health information
will be kept strictly confidential. Investigators plan to stay in touch
with the families to determine if other family members and their
children live longer than usual.
The current study recruitment builds on efforts
during an earlier phase of the research, in which several hundred
families took part. It is critical to include a large number of
additional families so that the most thorough analyses can be done.
"The families who have so generously given of their
time so far have told us that they are proud of their long-lived
families and are happy to be part of this effort," Rossi noted.
"We are most appreciative of their time and of
their interest — and that of future participants.
"The study’s lead researchers, prominent in
longevity and genetic research, are:
● Thomas Perls, M.D., Ph.D., director of the New
England Centenarian Study and Associate Professor of Medicine,
Geriatrics Section, Department of Medicine, Boston University;
● Richard Mayeux, M.D., M.Sc., Gertrude H.
Sergievsky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Columbia
University Medical Center and director of the Gertrude H. Sergievsky
Center and co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's
Disease and the Aging Brain, New York;
● Anne B. Newman, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of
Epidemiology and Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, University of
Pittsburgh;
● James W. Vaupel, Ph.D., executive director of
the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany,
and director of the Program on Population, Policy and Aging at the Terry
Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, N. C.;
● Kaare Christensen, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of
Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern
Denmark and senior research scientist at the Terry Sanford Institute of
Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, N. C. and,
● Michael A. Province, Ph.D., Professor of
Genetics and Biostatistics, and director of the Division of Statistical
Genomics in the Genome Sciences Center, Washington University, St.
Louis, Mo.
Individuals who live within a two- to three-hour
driving radius of Pittsburgh, Boston or New York City are invited to
call the study coordinating center at 1-877-362-2074 to see if they are
eligible to participate.
Study centers include Boston University, the
University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University. Additional information
about the study is available at
www.longlifefamilystudy.org.
The NIA leads the federal effort supporting and
conducting research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral
issues of older people. For more information on research and aging, go
to
www.nia.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The
Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the
causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For
more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
bommers
July
8, 2008 – WANTED: A few families that have a record of living a
long, long time. Although Americans are living longer, “extreme old age”
is still unusual and tends to run in some families, according to the
National Institute on Aging. The NIA, part of the National Institutes of
Health, is seeking long-lived families to help study the secrets to a
long healthy life.
