Center for Translational Research on Aging and Mobility

本申请建议更新NIA Edward R.位于伯明翰的亚拉巴马大学罗伊巴尔中心。该中心的主题是“老龄化和流动性的转化研究”。“随着年龄的增长，行动限制变得更加普遍，并被归因于身体认知和视觉功能的损害。除行动受限外，不良后果（如福尔斯）、驾驶时发生碰撞和受伤也与潜在损伤有关，以及驾驶能力丧失，这通常会导致抑郁和健康相关生活质量下降。这一研究领域的重要性突出表现在以下事实：持续的流动性促进独立性，Roybal中心的最终目标是通过改善身体，认知和视觉功能来改善老年人的生活，以提高生活质量，提高生产力，并最大限度地减少护理需求。此外，流动性下降导致对家庭成员和整个社会的社会和经济依赖。中心延续申请提出了两个核心，每个核心旨在加强实现中心目标所需的研究基础设施，并支持和促进许多附属中心项目的转化研究。拟议的中心将包括一个管理核心，它将提供数据管理和生物统计服务，技术支持，访问国家事故报告和碰撞数据库，访问招聘数据库，访问用于中心研究的评估工具，访问驾驶模拟器设施和驾驶评估诊所。管理核心还将促进学术研究人员和商业利益之间的合作，并确保中心的新发现传达给科学界，医疗保健专业人员，政府决策者和广大公众。这些活动都将由我们的咨询委员会提供便利，该委员会将监督核心和附属项目的运作。一个试点赠款核心将用于促进发展新的想法和有利于老年人的干预措施，这将有助于研究人员寻求额外的资金，以进一步发展，测试和实施试点的想法。

This application proposes the renewal of an NIA Edward R. Roybal Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The theme of the proposed Center is "Translational Research on Aging and Mobility." Mobility restrictions become more prevalent with advancing age, and have been attributed to impairments in physical cognitive and visual function. In additional to mobility restrictions, adverse outcomes such as falls, crash involvement while driving, and injuries are also associated with the underlying impairments, as well as loss of driving ability which frequently results in depression and poorer health-related quality of life. The significance of this area of research is underscored by the fact that continued mobility fosters independence and the ultimate goal of the Roybal Centers is to benefit the lives of older people by improving physical, cognitive and visual function in order to enhance quality of life, increased productivity, and minimize the need for care. Furthermore, decreased mobility leads to both social and economic dependence on family members and society at large. The Center continuation application proposes two cores, each designed to enhance the research infrastructure necessary to accomplish the objectives of the Center, and to support and promote translational research in the many affiliated Center projects. The proposed Center will consist of a management core, which will provide data management and biostatistical services, technical support, access to State accident reports and a crash database, access to a recruitment database, access to assessment tools for use in Center research, access to a driving simulator facility, and a driving assessment clinic. The Management Core will also facilitate collaborations among academic researchers and commercial interests, and insure that new findings of the Center are communicated to the scientific community, health care professionals, government policy makers, and the public at large. These activities will all be facilitated by our Advisory Board, which will oversee the functioning of the cores and the affiliated projects. A pilot grant core will be used to foster the development of new ideas and interventions of benefit to the elderly, and which will help researchers pursue additional funding to further develop, test and implement the ideas piloted.