SPACE: Supportive environments for Physical and social Activity, healthy ageing and CognitivE health

全球患有痴呆症和认知障碍的人数正在增加，主要是由于人们寿命延长，因此我们想弄清楚随着年龄的增长，我们居住的地方如何影响痴呆症和大脑健康。一些研究表明，我们居住的地方可能会影响我们的大脑健康。例如，城镇和城市的空气质量差，会导致大脑健康下降。随着我们越来越多的人生活在城镇，重要的是我们生活的环境是科学设计和改善，以最大限度地提高我们的大脑健康。我们生活的复杂的社会和物理环境使一些人比其他人更容易发展认知障碍。换句话说，谁最有可能因环境而发展认知疾病的因素与我们“如何”生活关系不大，而与我们生活的“地方”关系更大。我们不知道这些因素如何相互作用，使城市环境成为大脑健康的问题，也不知道哪些是促进健康老龄化和最贫困社区大脑健康的最佳政策和干预措施。我们的项目将为提供支持性城市环境以促进健康老龄化（包括促进大脑健康）的政策和实践提供证据。这可能包括使用创造性的城市设计，以支持人们采取和保持更健康的生活方式，如更积极。然而，这需要一个强有力的证据基础，专家社区倡导者可以阐明支持性的城市环境如何改善大脑健康。我们的研究有以下几个步骤：1.首先，在利益相关者的帮助下，包括来自商业，工业和地方政府的利益相关者，以及对现有研究的回顾，我们将在图表中表示我们的生物学，我们的生活方式和我们的环境之间的关系，说明它们如何相互作用以影响大脑健康，因为视觉思维可以帮助利益相关者更好地识别可能的干预甜蜜点，以改善大脑健康。通过分析来自北方爱尔兰的8,000多名老年人的数据，并将其与他们居住的地方的信息联系起来，例如空气污染量，土壤中的毒素，或者他们的社区是否适合步行，我们将探索不同的环境因素与大脑健康的关系。3.接下来，我们将收集一个由1,000名老年人组成的小组的新数据，包括更深入的大脑健康测量和更好的身体活动测量，使用佩戴在腰部的GPS设备来监测我们的位置。这将使我们能够探索城市环境如何影响我们的大脑健康。4.然后，我们将探讨我们的生物学方面如何在城市环境如何影响我们的大脑健康方面发挥作用。5.我们将与当地公民举办研讨会，以“检查”我们的发现，并共同开发有前途的预防方法。在这些研究中，我们将探讨改善环境对大脑健康影响的新举措的可接受性、可负担性、可行性和可持续性。这可能包括，例如，政策：扩大城市的无车区，以减少空气污染;增加人行道和自行车道的数量，以鼓励步行和骑自行车;改善公共交通，以减少汽车的使用。我们的基因、生活方式行为和城市环境相互作用影响大脑健康的系统地图，以帮助指导利益相关者制定可以改善大脑健康的政策和计划。一个证据库，探索我们居住的地方如何影响我们的大脑健康。3.改善大脑健康和促进健康老龄化的一套可能的政策和干预措施在老年人、企业、工业、决策者和其他利益攸关方的“测试”（在可接受性和可行性方面）。

The number of people worldwide living with dementia and cognitive impairment is increasing, mainly due to people living longer, so we want to figure out how where we live affects dementia and brain health as we get older. Some research suggests that where we live might influence our brain health. For example, poor air quality in towns and cities, can lead to a decline in brain health. As more of us now live in towns and cities, it is important that the environment where we live is scientifically designed and improved to maximise our brain health. The complex social and physical environments where we live make some people more vulnerable than others to developing cognitive impairment. In other words, the factors that account for who is most likely to develop cognitive ill-health due to the environment has less to do with 'how' we live and more to do with 'where' we live. We do not know how these factors interact to make urban environments a problem for brain health, nor which are the best policies and interventions for promoting healthy ageing and brain health for our poorest communities. Our project will provide evidence for policies and practices that provide supportive urban environments to promote healthy ageing, including promoting brain health. This could include using creative urban designs to support people to adopt and maintain healthier lifestyles such as being more active. However, this needs a strong evidence base with expert community advocates who can articulate how supportive urban environments can improve brain health. Our research has the following steps: 1. First, with the help of stakeholders, including those from business, industry, and local government, and a review of existing research, we will represent the relationships between our biology, our lifestyles and our environment in a diagram illustrating how they likely interact to affect brain health, because visual thinking can help stakeholders better identify possible intervention sweet-spots to improve brain health.2. By analysing data from over 8,000 older people in Northern Ireland, and linking this to information about where they live, such as the amount of air pollution, the toxins in soil, or how walkable their neighbourhoods are, we will explore how different environmental factors relate to brain health. 3. Next, we will collect new data on a subgroup of 1,000 older people including more in-depth measures of brain health and better measures of physical activity, using GPS devices worn around the waist that monitor our locations. This will allow us to explore how the urban environment influences our brain health. 4. Then, we will explore how aspects of our biology play a role in how the urban environment affects our brain health. 5. We will host workshops with local citizens to 'sense-check' our findings and co-develop promising prevention approaches. In these, we will explore the acceptability, affordability, feasibility and sustainability of new initiatives to improve the environmental influences on brain health. This might include, for example, policies on: expanding the car-free areas of the city to reduce air pollution; increasing the number of footpaths and cycle paths to encourage walking and cycling; improving public transport to reduce car use.As a result of our research we will produce:1. A map of the system in which our genes, lifestyle behaviours and urban environments interact to affect brain health, to help guide stakeholders towards policies and programmes that can improve brain health.2. An evidence base exploring how where we live affects our brain health. 3. A suite of potential policies and interventions to improve brain health and promote healthy ageing 'tested' (in terms of acceptability and feasibility) with older people, business, industry, policymakers and other stakeholders.