HALCyon - Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course
The LHA is leading the Healthy Ageing across the Life
Course (HALCyon) collaborativecollaborative research
programme funded from September 2008 until March 2012 by the
New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme. NDA is a
joint seven-year initiative of five UK Research Councils to
improve the quality of life of older people (see
www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk).
Structure of the study
HALCyon brings together an interdisciplinary group of
23 scientists and nine UK cohort studies to understand
three aspects of healthy ageing:
- Physical and cognitive capability (the
capacity to undertake the physical and mental tasks of everyday
living)
- Psychological and social wellbeing (how
people feel and how they function in terms of relationships
and social activities)
- Underlying biology of ageing. This includes
cortisol (one of the body’s stress hormones), telomere length
(the cell’s natural clock that tells the body how old it is)
and genetic factors.
Aims
The HALCyon programme looks at:
- Inter-relationships between indicators of capability, wellbeing
and biological ageing
- How these indicators of healthy ageing and inter-relationships
change with age
- Common lifetime determinants.
Eight inter-related work packages investigate how
individual factors such as early development, lifetime
health, personality and nutrition, and characteristics of
areas in which study members have lived, influence indicators
of healthy ageing. These factors may explain why some older
people live fulfilled and active lives and why differences
exist between men and women, or between social groups. Some
cohort members have been interviewed to find out how they
understand their life history and experiences and their
response to ageing.
Organisation and Knowledge Sharing
The Core Project provides the central point of contact,
organising six-monthly meetings and ensuring the work
packages are scientifically integrated. The methodology core
supports the research by providing comparable measures in the
different cohorts that can be used across all the work
packages.
The knowledge transfer core ensures that findings are
disseminated quickly and effectively to non-academic partners
who are experts in policy, practice and user involvement.
Find out more
More information on the HALCyon programme, including
details of co-investigators, collaborators and non-academic
partners, can be found at www.halcyon.ac.uk. Details for the
most recent publications can be viewed here.