The Sri Lanka Healthy Minds Study

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请为斯里兰卡健康心理研究（SLHMS）奠定了基础，SLHMS是杜克大学和鲁胡纳大学医学院之间的一个新的合作研究项目，旨在描述老年斯里兰卡人中抑郁症和认知障碍的流行病学。SLHMS将是一项基于人群的研究，其中将使用生命过程的观点来检查个人，照顾者和其他家庭水平的因素，以更好地了解抑郁症风险及其对认知障碍的影响。我们目前建议的一个重要目标是在鲁胡纳大学建立持续的研究能力和流行病学研究的技术专长，以促进SLHMS以及其他长期合作项目。虽然斯里兰卡是亚洲老龄化速度最快的国家之一，但缺乏有关斯里兰卡老年人最常见的神经精神疾病的流行病学数据，我们的研究计划正是要解决这一差距。最近估计60岁以上的人中有28%患有抑郁症，这尤其令人不安，因为这种情况与大多数其他健康问题的预后显著恶化有关，包括认知障碍及其相关的残疾。总体目标是描述抑郁症和认知障碍的流行病学，并确定可改变的心理社会因素，这些因素可用于未来的健康促进工作以及医疗资源分配。这项建议的具体目标是：（1）使用定性方法，审查当地对斯里兰卡老年人抑郁症和认知能力下降的理解，以及成功老龄化和对精神疾病的态度等概念;（2）验证抑郁症的衡量标准和家庭调查中使用的其他概念;（3）进行家庭调查试点，以确定可行性并为R 01提交生成初步数据，以及（4）发展鲁胡纳大学的研究能力，这将导致长期的研究合作。我们的长期研究目标是前瞻性地研究照顾者和其他家庭成员在老年家庭成员的抑郁和认知障碍状态中的作用。最终，我们希望我们的研究结果将提供具体的证据，以指导具有成本效益的，以社区为基础的干预措施，以防止或改善斯里兰卡老年人抑郁症和认知障碍的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application lays the foundation for the Sri Lanka Healthy Minds Study (SLHMS), a new collaborative research project between Duke University and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ruhuna that aims to describe the epidemiology of depression and cognitive impairment among elderly Sri Lankans. The SLHMS will be a population based study where individual, caregiver, and other family level factors will be examined using a lifecourse perspective to better understand depression risk and its influence on cognitive impairment. An important goal of our current proposal is to build sustained research capacity and technical expertise in epidemiological research at the University of Ruhuna in order to facilitate the SLHMS as well as other long term collaborative projects. While Sri Lanka is one of Asia's most rapidly aging countries, there is a lack of epidemiological data on the most common neuropsychiatric conditions among the elderly in Sri Lanka and it is this gap that our research program plans to address. A recent estimate of 28% depression among those over 60 is especially troubling, as the condition is associated with significantly worse prognosis of most other health problems, including cognitive impairment and its associated disability. The overarching goal is to both describe the epidemiology of depression and cognitive impairment and to identify modifiable psychosocial factors, which can be utilized in future health promoting efforts as well as healthcare resource allocation. The specific aims of this proposal are to: (1) use qualitative methods to examine local understanding of depression and cognitive decline among elderly in Sri Lanka, concepts such as successful aging and attitudes towards mental illness; (2) validate measures of depression and other constructs to be used in a household survey; (3) pilot a household survey to establish feasibility and generate preliminary data for R01 submission, and (4) develop the research capacities at the University of Ruhuna which will lead to long term research collaborations. Our long term research goal is to examine prospectively the role of the caregiver and other family members in relation to the depression and cognitive impairment status of the elderly family member. Ultimately, we hope that our findings will provide concrete evidence to guide cost-effective, community based interventions to prevent, or ameliorate the impact of, depression and cognitive impairment among Sri Lankan elderly.