The Copenhagen Group 1st year evaluation meeting 18 – 19 May 2009 Hotel Marienlyst, Helsingor D anish A ging R esearch C enter VELUX FONDEN - D A N I S H A G I N G R E S E A R C H C E N T E R - Why do we age so differently?

On top of the Velux donation to DARC: Two more grant donations  Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB) – funded by the Velux Foundation  Center for Healthy Aging – funded by the Nordea Denmark Foundation

Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB)  General purpose:  To establish a midlife biobank with focus on biological, cognitive and social variables - in order to study aging processes over the entire life course

The Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank – to be established Pregnancy/BirthChildhood/adulthoodMidlife The Danish Longitudinal Study on Work, Unemployment and Health (born 1949, 1959) Age 40/5045/55 The Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort (born ) Age The Metropolit Study (born 1953) 12 51Age 0 18

Copenhagen aging and midlife biobank (CAMB)  Follow-up study 2009 – 11 including blood samples, questionnaire, physical and mental tests   will be invited, we expect/hope for participants  The data collection takes place at National Research Center for Working Conditions in Copenhagen  And started up 20 April 2009

Tidlige aldringsindikatorer  Low grade inflammation  Parodontal inflammation  Cognitive problems  Low muscle function  Physical performance  Fatigue 

Blood samples- CAMB  IL-6DNA-repair  hsCRPCholesterol  TNF-alphaBlood sugar  IL-15Hemoglobin  IL-18Triglycerides  HbA 1c

Clinical examination - CAMB  Height  Weight  Percentage of bodyfat  Blood pressure  Periodontal examination  (in a subpopulation)  Lung function (spirometry)

Physical tests - CAMB  Functional ability (chair-rise test)  Muscle strength (hand-grip strength, ventral and dorsal thorax)  Muscle power  Balance  Reaction time  VO2 max (in a sub-population)

Cognitive function - CAMB I-S-T 2000 R (Intelligenz- Struktur-Test)  Sentence completion  Sequence of numbers  Analogies

Questionnaire CAMB  Health  Oral health  Fatigue  Mental function (anxiety, depression)  Socio-economic factors  Work ability  Working life history  Social relations  Social capital  Health behaviours  Indoor climate 

Perspectives - CAMB  CAMB provides an outstanding possibility to study the influences of factors early in life (childhood and adolescence) on early aging in midlife  CAMB will form the basis for numerous future studies on the importance of biological, cognitive and environmental factors in midlife for premature aging in later life

Center for Healthy Aging  University of Copenhagen  Main Principal Investigator: Dean Ulla Wewer  5 research programmes: 1)Neurobiology (PI: Professor Martin Lauritzen) 2)Skeletal muscle metabolism (Professor Michael Kjær) 3)Life course perspective on ageing (Professor Kirsten Avlund) 4)Society, culture and health care policy (Professor Allan Krasnik) 5)Health promotion and user innovation (Ass. Professor Lene Otto)  Funded by the Nordea Denmark Foundation

Center for Healthy Aging Theme 3. Aging in a life course perspective  Focus on  Biological, physiological, cognitive and self-reported markers of early aging  Influence of social, mental and health factors throughout the life course on early aging

Center for Healthy Aging Theme 3. Research group  Professor Kirsten Avlund (PI for the group)  Professor Finn Diderichsen  Ass. Professor Rikke Lund  Ass. Professor Erik Lykke Mortensen  Professor Merete Osler

Center for Healthy Aging Organisation  1. Managing Director - ??  2. Executive committee  Birgitte Nauntofte  Vilhelm Bohr  Michael Kjær  Erik Lykke. Mortensen  3. Steering group  the theme leaders

Research group in Gerontology at Department of Social Medicine  Growing focus on research in gerontology  A growing number of  senior researchers  Ph.d.-students  Pregraduate students  Development of courses in Gerontology  More visibility  Media  Chapters in text books

DARC-projects  Fatigue and aging  Copenhagen and Odense  Fatigue and aging  Ph.d.-project – Anette Ekmann  Copenhagen and Aarhus/ Vejle  Fatigue and molecular biomarkers  Post. Doc. Laila Bendix