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Duke-NUS Announces Centre for Ageing Research and Education

SINGAPORE, 2 June 2015 – Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) has set up the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE), an academic centre that will conduct research and facilitate education on ageing to guide solutions relevant to the needs of Singapore. While great strides have been made in understanding how individuals age medically, very little is known about how social factors interplay with physical decline. CARE will identify how social dimensions interact with medical conditions in order to achieve successful ageing in Singapore. 

CARE’s key mission is to facilitate multi-disciplinary research that combines the biological, social and medical aspects of ageing. This research will provide the background information needed to identify risk factors for ageing unsuccessfully at the individual, family, and societal level. CARE will also develop curriculum to educate researchers, clinicians and the public to better understand and address issues associated with population ageing. Through research and education CARE will provide systematic evidence of the predictors of successful ageing to inform policy making in Singapore.

CARE is well placed to undertake multi-disciplinary research on ageing with its network of researchers and clinicians in Singapore and worldwide. CARE will draw on their network of experts across diverse fields, which include the biomedical sciences and social sciences, engineering, architecture and health technology, to engage in collaborative work.  Research at CARE is currently based on several broad thematic areas – maintaining the health of older Singaporeans, measuring and delaying the onset of frailty, caregiving, productive longevity and the integration of home and community care to allow ageing in place. CARE's international partners include the Institute of Gerontology in Tokyo, Japan, Duke University Aging Centre, Nihon University, University of Michi and the University of New South Wales, to name a few. 

 

CARE aims to translate these research outcomes into solutions that are relevant for Singapore. For a start, CARE will focus on caregiving and identify areas where caregivers report stressors in order to propose solutions to enhance the positive aspects of caregiving in Singapore. 

 

“We need to collect both hard and soft data regarding the older population, families, and communities – and ultimately achieve maximum health, social inclusion, and quality of life for older adults in Singapore,” said Associate Angelique Professor Chan, Director of CARE. “Ageing is not a “problem,” it is a success derived primarily from lowering mortality at youngest ages and extending life at older ages through better health systems and knowledge. We hope to change the way that people and policymakers look at and define successful ageing.”  

CARE is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health and receives generous support from philanthropists and business leaders in Singapore.   

The 27th REVES Scientific Meeting, an annual conference held to discuss ageing research and innovation, was brought to Singapore for the first time by CARE. This conference, held on 2 to 4 June 2015 at Duke-NUS, is the first conference organised by CARE. Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, was the Guest-of-honour. 

CARE Projects and Initiatives

Researchers from CARE have completed three projects that have yielded valuable insight into the needs of Singapore’s ageing population. The first was a survey on informal caregiving; the second was a study of factors that influence the use of long-term care services; and the third was an intervention study to determine if self-care education would be effective for older persons.

Currently, CARE researchers, together with Duke-NUS Health Services and Systems Research (HSSR) Programme faculty and a restructured hospital in Singapore, are evaluating an intervention study called Ageing-in-Place (AIP) to address the needs of resource-intensive patients who have chronic conditions. A network of community health nurses help assess, monitor these patients’ social, medical, and rehabilitation needs as well as caregiver support in the home environments. The Centre has also launched a panel on Health and Ageing of Singaporean Elderly (PHASE), a longitudinal study that aims to develop a profile of the changes in physical, social and mental health of Singaporeans aged 60 and above. CARE also recently embarked on two longitudinal surveys, SIGNS - a survey of 5,000 older adults aged 60 and above - and PATHS – a survey of 1,000 older adults aged 50 to 59. They will be surveyed in 2015 and 2017 and the study aims to assess changes in physical, mental and social health and monitor their changing health profile. 

With regard to education, CARE will develop the curriculum for “Modern Ageing,” an educational programme that helps entrepreneurs create businesses to serve the needs of elders and caregivers. The project is in collaboration with ACCESS Health International, NUS Enterprise and Alexandra Health Systems.

As part of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School second year medical programme, CARE will develop a one-day curriculum that focuses on how social and medical issues intersect for older individuals. 

For more information on CARE, please visit the Centre’s website at: http://duke-nus.edu.sg/care/

27th Réseau Espérance de Vie en Santé (REVES) Scientific Meeting

The 27th REVES Scientific Meeting brings together international researchers to address the topic of health expectancy. Health expectancy measures health by considering how long a person lives by how healthy they are. This composite measure of health and ageing is seen to be a more accurate view of health rather than longevity. 

Ageing and disability experts and founding members of the REVES Association; Professor Jean-Marie Robine, Research Director of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and from the University of Montpellier, Professor Eileen Crimmins from the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California and Professor Saito Yasuhiko from the University Research Centre at Nihon University, shared their insights with conference delegates.