Ageing Well

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Ageing Well National Science Challenge
Established2015
TypeResearch programme
Location
  • New Zealand
Director
David Baxter
Budget
$34.9 m NZD
FundingMBIE
Websitewww.ageingwellchallenge.co.nz

Ageing Well (Māori: Kia eke kairangi ki te taikaumātuatanga) is one of New Zealand's eleven collaborative research programmes known as National Science Challenges. Running from 2015 to 2024, the focus of Ageing Well National Science Challenge (AWNSC) research is sustaining health and wellbeing towards the end of life, particularly in Māori and Pacific populations in New Zealand.

Establishment and governance[edit]

The New Zealand Government agreed in August 2012 to fund National Science Challenges: large multi-year collaborative research programmes that would address important issues in New Zealand's future. The funding criteria were set out in January 2014, with proposals assessed by a Science Board within the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE).[1]

Official launch of Ageing Well in 2015; Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce centre, David Baxter far right

After a planning phase in 2014, MBIE approved the University of Otago was approved as a host for the project. AWNSC was launched on 4 March 2015 by Minister for Science and Innovation Steven Joyce, one of three health-based National Science Challenges.[2]: 8–9  The Māori name of Ageing Well is Kia eke (to strive for) kairangi (something esteemed) ki te taikaumātuatanga (of being elderly).[3]

Ageing Well's governance and science leadership teams as well as a Kāhui Rōpū (Māori advisory group) and international science advisory panel were all established in 2016. Di McCarthy was appointed chair of the science challenge, a position she held until 2020.

David Baxter was appointed initial Director of AWNSC. Deputy Director Debra Waters became Director of AWNSC in 2019, and left in 2020.[4] Louise Parr-Brownlie, who joined Ageing Well as Deputy Director in 2018, became Director in 2020, with David Baxter as co-Director.[5] After Parr-Brownlie left for an advisory job in MBIE in 2023, Baxter was appointed as Director for a second time, to lead the Challenge through its final year.[6]

Vision Mātauranga is a New Zealand government policy to foster collaboration with Māori and the science community. All National Science Challenges were set up with separate Governance and Māori Advisory groups, but in 2017 the Kāhui and Governance groups for AWNSC were merged into a single body, a novel approach at the time which aligned with Vision Mātauranga and gave Kāhui Māori members an equal say in decisionmaking. As part of a restructure at the five-year mark to appoint more Māori to leadership roles, Louise Parr-Brownlie became Director, and Will Edwards was appointed Deputy Chair of the new Governance Group, becoming Chair in 2020.[2]: 14–15 [7]: 16  In that same year $3.25m was allocated to co-designed projects that focussed particularly on Māori and Pasifika ageing.[2]: 16–17  Half of the second five years of funding was allocated to Māōri-led, mostly community-driven research projects.[7]: 17 

Strategic Advisory Group and other staff in 2019. Left to right: Nancy Longnecker, Len Cook, Sarah Clark, Elana Curtis, Andrew Sporle, Stephen Neville, Mary Simpson, David Baxter, Ngaire Kerse, Moana Theodore, Debra Waters

As part of a review of all National Science Challenges in 2018, the then-Minister for Science and Innovation Megan Woods announced an additional $20.3m of funding to Ageing Well for research until 2024.[2]: 8–9 

AWNSC is hosted by the University of Otago, with other research partners around New Zealand including AgResearch, Auckland University of Technology, the Centre for Research, Evaluation, and Social Assessment (CRESA), Massey University, the University of Auckland, the University of Canterbury, the University of Waikato and Victoria University of Wellington.[8] It has worked with researchers in the National Science Challenges Healthier Lives and A Better Start, and the three Challenges collaborated in the conference He Ora te Whakapiri at Te Papa in October 2018.[9] AWNSC has also collaborated with Brain Research New Zealand on three co-funded research projects.[10]

The final symposium for AWNSC, the culmination of the ten-year research programme, was held at Te Papa on 10–11 April 2024. Former head of the New Zealand Productivity Commission Ganesh Nana was the keynote speaker, and lead speakers included Louise Parr-Brownlie, Sarah Clark, Ofa Dewes, Joanna Hikaka, and Ngaire Kerse.[11]

Research[edit]

Governance Group meeting, August 2023; left to right are Andrew Lonie, David Baxter, Sarah Benwell, Adrienne von Tunzelmann, Will Edwards, Louise Parr-Brownlie, David Schaaf, and Helen Nicholson

The focus of Ageing Well is ageing-related issues in Aotearoa New Zealand; its official objective is "to harness science to sustain health and wellbeing into the later years of life."[12]: 10  Some of the problems of ageing it was set up to address include inadequate housing, frailty, deteriorating brain health, poverty, ageism, and social isolation.[2]: 96–97  In its initial years, AWNSC funded 18 research projects on a wide range of issues related to ageing, but after 2018 the focus of research narrowed into two main areas: health and wellbeing in ageing (particularly social connections and maintaining an active life); and ageing and Māori (who as an ethnic group are disproportionately disadvantaged as they age).[2]: 96–97 

Ageing Well's first research publication was in 2016, by Valery Feigin, Rita Krishnamurthi, and their team at AUT's National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences (NISAN). They examined the global burden and risk factors of strokes over 1990–2013, and concluded that over 90% of strokes were attributable to modifiable risk factors, and three quarters of strokes could be avoided by controlling behavioural and metabolic risk factors.[13] They also determined that air pollution was a significant contributor to strokes, especially in low- to middle-income countries. Feigin and Krishnamurthi's team later developed digital tools for helping prevent strokes: a free mobile app, Stroke Riskometer, to measure risk; and a desktop tool for doctors, PreventS-MD. Their decades of epidemiological work in stroke risk and prevention led to them receiving the Prime Minister's Science Prize in 2023.[14]

External videos
video icon I'll Care For You (Music video on Pasifika end-of-life care)

One research area of Ageing Well has been ageing in New Zealand Pacific peoples (Pasifika). Ofa Dewes was the principal researcher for a study on end-of-life in Pasifika, who have poor access to palliative care. Her study participants overwhelmingly wished to die at home surrounded by aiga (family), but there was insufficient support for aiga carers. At the suggestion of her study participants a music video, I'll Care For You, was created to spread the study's findings in the community. Her findings informed strategic plans developed by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Development.[2]: 68–71 

In October 2022, Dewes and the Tongan Health Society established the Langimalie Research Centre, which began a research programme on brain health support services and the different cultural approaches needed in diverse ethnic communities: initially Tongan, Tokolauan, and Tuvaluan communities in Auckland and Wellington.[7]: 19, 36–37 

Pasifika are the only New Zealand ethnic group whose mortality has stagnated rather than improved in recent years, due to the cost of medical care and cultural and language barriers.[2]: 80–83  A two year study by El-Shadan (Dan) Tautolo of Samoan, Tongan, and Cook Island Pasifika grandparents, co-designed by the participants, found that a strong cultural identity was a predictor of good health. The participants identified podiatry as a focus, as older Pasifika have a higher risk of foot and lower-limb issues, and Tautolo argued for adding podiatry checks into outpatient community health assessments.[15]

Sally Keeling and Hamish Jamieson of the University of Otago, Christchurch, studied loneliness and social isolation in older New Zealanders, analysing 72,000 aged-care admissions recorded in the InterRAI database. Over one in five older adults reported feeling lonely; the numbers were highest amongst older Asians (23%) but relatively low in Pasifika (17%), and loneliness increased with social deprivation.[16] They also found social factors such as living alone, loneliness, and having stressed carers significantly increased the chance of being admitted to aged care, much more so than medical conditions like incontinence. Social Isolation and loneliness also increased the chance of depression, social anxiety, and chronic pain.[2]: 76–79 

Symposia[edit]

  • Aged Care and Housing: evidence-based solutions for Aotearoa (2022). Hybrid event focussed on housing and residential aged care.[17] Symposium report (PDF).

Publications[edit]

  • Ageing Well (2021). Celebrating Ageing Well: The first five years of the Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Dunedin: University of Otago. ISBN 978-0-473-57902-9. Wikidata Q124444554.
  • Healthier Lives; Ageing Well; A Better Start (September 2023), Evidence for Health and Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand, Dunedin: University of Otago, Wikidata Q124618162
  • Ageing Well (2024). Ka Mua Ka Muri: A decade of ageing well in Aotearoa and beyond. Dunedin: University of Otago. ISBN 978-0-473-71126-9. Wikidata Q125684589.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Criteria for Proposals for National Science Challenges funding - 2014-go548". New Zealand Gazette. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ageing Well (2021). Celebrating Ageing Well: The first five years of the Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Dunedin: University of Otago. ISBN 978-0-473-57902-9. Wikidata Q124444554.
  3. ^ MBIE. "Ageing Well | Kia eke kairangi ki te taikaumātuatanga". National Science Challenges. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  4. ^ "New heads to lead Ageing Well National Science Challenge". Otago Bulletin. University of Otago. 13 February 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  5. ^ Richardson, Rebecca (7 August 2023). "Challenge says haere rā to Director". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  6. ^ Richardson, Rebecca (5 October 2023). "Co-Director steps up into lead role". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Ageing Well (2024). Ka Mua Ka Muri: A decade of ageing well in Aotearoa and beyond. Dunedin: University of Otago. ISBN 978-0-473-71126-9. Wikidata Q125684589.
  8. ^ "Our Collaborators". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Major life course research conference opens at Te Papa". A Better Start National Science Challenge. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  10. ^ Alexander, Dean (28 January 2019). "Ageing Well & Brain Research New Zealand announce co-funding". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  11. ^ Richardson, Rebecca (22 April 2024). "Ageing Well Symposium "far exceeded expectations"". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  12. ^ Ageing Well (2021). Celebrating Ageing Well: The first five years of the Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Dunedin: University of Otago. ISBN 978-0-473-57902-9. Wikidata Q124444554.
  13. ^ Valery L Feigin; Gregory A Roth; Mohsen Naghavi; et al. (9 June 2016). "Global burden of stroke and risk factors in 188 countries, during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013". Lancet Neurology. 15 (9): 913–924. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(16)30073-4. ISSN 1474-4422. PMID 27291521. Wikidata Q39690277.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Morton, Jamie (1 May 2023). "Son's grief prompted ground-breaking stroke research". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  15. ^ Tautolo, El-Shadan; Wrapson, Wendy; Paterson, Janis; Clair, Valerie Wright-St; Neville, Stephen; Dewes, Ofa; Iusitini, Leon (3 April 2017). "Healthy Pacific grandparents: a participatory action research project exploring ageing well among Pacific people in New Zealand". Self & Society. 45 (2): 134–148. doi:10.1080/03060497.2017.1334973. hdl:10292/10663. ISSN 0306-0497.
  16. ^ Jamieson, Hamish; Abey-Nesbit, Rebecca; Bergler, Ulrich; Keeling, Sally; Schluter, Philip J.; Scrase, Richard; Lacey, Cameron (2019). "Evaluating the Influence of Social Factors on Aged Residential Care Admission in a National Home Care Assessment Database of Older Adults". Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 20 (11): 1419–1424. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2019.02.005.
  17. ^ Richardson, Rebecca (17 October 2022). "2022 Symposium Wrap Up". Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Retrieved 26 March 2024.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ageing Well.
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