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

巴尔的摩老龄化纵向研究(BLSA)是一个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。纵向变化的评估是通过让一组不同性别和年龄的社区居住对象在成年后每两年回来进行一次全面评估来进行的。这项研究的主要目标是更好地了解不同器官系统中与年龄相关的变化及其相互关系，表征从正常到病理性衰老的转变，并将这些系统中的功能变化与特定疾病和死亡率的发展联系起来。BLSA的目的有四个：1)获得对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)比较在年龄和性别队列中重复测量的功能水平；3)跟踪个体参与者和参与者群体在与年龄相关的终点和疾病事件之前和之后的变化；以及4)识别可能是生物老化标志的个体参与者的特征，并分析它们对临床结果的影响。还获得了多个参数的横截面特征，并量化了与年龄、性别和种族有关的差异。研究了老龄化、长期和周期效应。正在研究营养习惯、体力活动习惯水平和对年龄相关身体残疾的适应与葡萄糖代谢、心血管功能和特定疾病结局之间的关系。对一些BLSA参与者的研究是在约翰霍普金斯大学海湾医学中心的GCRC上进行的，包括营养模式评估和口服葡萄糖耐量测试。在过去的一年里，发表了与糖尿病和葡萄糖代谢、骨关节炎、阿尔茨海默氏症、心血管疾病、前列腺癌和妇女健康有关的主要报告。BLSA是国家老龄研究所内部研究计划的一部分，并得到NIA的全部支持。GCRC工作人员采访了379名BLSA参与者进行营养评估。在本报告所述期间看到的大约500名受试者中，有25人被送入GCRC进行检测。这项研究的招生期限正在进行中。

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.