BALTIMORE LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF AGING--PHYSIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY & PSYCHOLOGY

巴尔的摩老龄化纵向研究（BLSA）是一项正在进行的多学科研究项目，旨在了解男性和女性的衰老过程。纵向变化是通过在社区居住的一组研究对象来评估的，这些研究对象不分性别和年龄，贯穿整个成年生命周期，每两年返回一次进行全面评估。该研究的主要目标是更好地了解各种器官系统的年龄相关变化及其相互关系，表征从正常到病理性衰老的转变，并将这些系统的功能变化与特定疾病的发展和死亡率联系起来。BLSA的目的有四个方面：1)获得纵向研究参与者的生理、病理、生化和心理变量的重复测量；2)比较年龄和性别队列中重复测量的功能水平；3)跟踪参与者个体和参与者群体的变化，直至和超越年龄相关终点和疾病事件；4)识别个体参与者可能作为生物衰老标志的特征，并分析其对临床结果的影响。还获得了多个参数的横截面特征，并量化了与年龄、性别和种族相关的差异。老化，长期和时期的影响进行了检查。正在研究诸如营养习惯、习惯体力活动水平以及对与葡萄糖代谢、心血管功能和特定疾病结局相关的年龄相关身体残疾的适应等变量之间的关系。一些BLSA参与者的研究是在约翰霍普金斯湾景医学中心的GCRC上进行的，包括营养模式评估和口服葡萄糖耐量测试。在过去的一年中，发表了关于糖尿病和葡萄糖代谢、骨关节炎、阿尔茨海默病、心血管疾病、前列腺癌和妇女健康的主要报告。BLSA是国家老龄研究所校内研究项目的一部分，由NIA全面支持。GCRC工作人员采访了379名BLSA参与者进行营养评估。在报告所述期间所见的约500名受试者中，有25人被送入GCRC进行测试。本研究的入组期正在进行中。

The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) is an ongoing, multidisciplinary research project aimed at understanding the aging process in men and women. Longitudinal changes are assessed by having a cohort of community-dwelling subjects of both sexes, and ages across the adult lifespan, who return every two years for a comprehensive evaluation. Major goals of the study are to better understand age-related changes in various organ systems and their interrelationships, to characterize the transition from normal to pathological aging, and to relate functional changes in these systems to the development of specific diseases and mortality. The purposes of the BLSA are fourfold: 1) to obtain repeated measures of physiological, pathological, biochemical, and psychological variables on longitudinal study participants; 2) to compare levels of function repeatedly measured in age and sex cohorts; 3) to follow changes in individual participants and groups of participants up to and beyond age-related endpoints and disease events; and 4) to identify characteristics of individual participants that may be markers of biological aging, and to analyze their influence on clinical outcomes. Cross-sectional characterization of multiple parameters is also obtained and differences related to age, sex and race are quantified. Aging, secular, and period effects are examined. Relationships between such variables as nutritional habits, customary levels of physical activity, and adaptations to age-associated physical disability with glucose metabolism, cardiovascular function and specific disease outcome are being examined. Studies of some BLSA participants are conducted on Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center's GCRC and include assessments of nutritional patterns and oral glucose tolerance testing. Over the past year, major reports have been published in relation to diabetes and glucose metabolism, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's Disease, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, and women's health. The BLSA is part of the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Aging and wholy supported by the NIA. The GCRC staff intereviewed 379 of the BLSA participants for nutritional assessment. Twenth-five of approximately 500 subjects seen during the reporting period were admitted to the GCRC for testing. The enrollment period for this study is ongoing.