A recent study published in the European Journal of Public Health sought to determine whether socio-economic status influenced chronic pain prevalence among older adult populations. A 36 item short-form survey was employed to measure the pain interference and socio-economic status of study participants. A total of 11309 individuals (age 65 and older) were sent surveys annually over a 3-year period, and 2533 individuals completed and returned surveys consistently during the course of the study. The authors found a correlation between chronic disabling pain and socioeconomic status in which older adults with lower education and occupational opportunities displayed higher prevalence of disabling pain. The authors state, "persons who started life with a minimum level of education or less and subsequently spent most of their working life in a manual or routine occupation were twice as likely to report pain in later life."   

Older adults living with osteoarthritis: examining the relationship of age and gender to medicine use. 

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent condition among older adults that can cause severe pain, disability, and discomfort. The Canadian Journal on Aging recently published a study that sought to determine the variations in pain medication use among older adults with osteoarthritis. The authors found that "the pharmacological management of OA - that is, likelihood of use of acetaminophen, NSAIDs, and opioid analgesics - is further differentiated by age and gender, when controlling for severity of OA-related symptoms, co-occurring chronic conditions, self-rated health, patient educational level, social support availability, and access and frequency of contact with a physician." The authors suggest that health care professionals closely monitor the use of non-prescribed acetaminophen, especially among older adults with higher reports of osteoarthritis related pain, as they are more likely to self medicate and abuse pain medications. 

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Are older adults who volunteer to participate in an exercise study fitter and healthier than non-volunteers? The participation bias of the study population.  

A recent study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health addressed whether exercise bias existed in exercise- based intervention studies designed for older adults. The authors employed a self-reported questionnaire that was mailed to 1000 older adults of which 535 individuals responded. Of the 535 respondents, 233 agreed to participate in a exercise study offered at the end of the survey. The authors found that the volunteer group consisted of healthier, younger, and fitter individuals in comparison to the 270 individuals who chose not to participate in the exercise study. The study suggests that caution must be used when analyzing the results of an exercise intervention to ensure that participants accurately depict the patient population, and not consist entirely of individuals who exercise more than the average population of older adults.  

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Undertreatment of pain in older adults: An application of beneficence. 

In the most recent edition of Nursing Ethics a study evaluated the role of beneficence in effectively treating pain conditions among older adults. Older adults commonly experience various acute and chronic pain conditions, and often these conditions are underassesed or undertreated. The focus of the study was to determine the efficacy of incorporating Beauchamp and Childress' 3 principals of beneficence into a pain management program. The goal of the program was to improve pain conditions among older adults and educate nurses on their "role as patient advocates in pain management."

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TRIPLL Internship for Undergraduate Students 

This summer TRIPLL hosted 5 volunteer interns from June-August. The interns worked on two separate TRIPLL projects as well as their own personal research projects. Listed below are brief project summaries provided by each intern.

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Mechanistic Studies of Pain and Alcohol Dependence (R01)
"Program Announcement (PA) Number: PA-11-267
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications that propose to conduct mechanistic studies on the relationship between alcohol drinking, alcohol dependence and pain. An association between chronic pain conditions and alcohol dependence has been revealed in numerous studies with episodes of alcohol abuse antedating chronic pain in some people and alcohol dependence emerging after the onset of chronic pain in others. Pain transmission and alcohol's reinforcing effects share overlapping neural substrates giving rise to the possibility that chronic pain states significantly affect alcohol use patterns and promote the development of dependence and addiction. In addition, long term alcohol intoxication and alcohol dependence induce pain symptoms and may exacerbate chronic pain arising from other sources. The objective of this FOA is to understand genetic, pharmacological and learning mechanisms underlying the association between the propensity to drink alcohol and pain responses."

 
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Mayday Fund of New York
"The Mayday Fund is dedicated to alleviating the incidence, degree, and consequence of human physical pain.

The Mayday Fund's current grant-making targets are projects that result in clinical interventions to reduce the toll of physical pain, pediatric pain, pain in non-verbal populations, and pain in the context of emergency medicine. Mayday will also continue to be proactive in its commitment to promote networking between veterinary and human medicine, especially in an effort to inform measurements of pain in non-verbal populations. Finally, the trustees of the Mayday Fund wish to be nimble enough to respond as special opportunities present themselves. Grants are made only to public charities and educational institutions officially recognized as such by the IRS. The Mayday Fund concentrates its activities in the United States. On occasion, grants have been made to Canadian organizations when the project has an effect that reaches beyond Canada. Grants cannot be made to individuals."

Applications are continuous and no specified due date is applied.

Age Related Funding

Translational Research at the Aging/Cancer Interface (TRACI) (R01)

Program Announcement (PA) Number: PA-12-136

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages translational research proposals in the overlapping areas of human aging and cancer, linking basic and clinical research relevant to the care of older cancer patients through both bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench approaches. Ultimately, information from the research supported by this initiative should improve the health and well-being of elderly patients at risk for, or diagnosed with, cancer and decrease the functional impairment and morbidity associated with cancer in this population.    

T1 Translational Research:  Novel interventions for prevention and treatment of age-related conditions (R21)

Program Announcement (PA) Number: PAS-11-280

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) encourages exploratory/developmental R21 research projects to accelerate the pace of development of novel therapeutics involving biologics, pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches for preventing and treating key health issues affecting the elderly.   For the purposes of this FOA, T1 translational research on aging is defined as the application of basic and clinical biomedical findings towards the development of new strategies for prevention and treatment of age-related pathologies. For projects proposing basic research that is being conducted in animal models, the potential to treat a clinical age-related pathology must be clearly stated in the proposal.  Direct relevance of the data to a clinical aging condition must be established and clearly stated in the application.

National Science Foundation funding grant "General & Age-Related Disabilities Engineering (GARDE)"
"The General & Age Related Disabilities Engineering (GARDE) program supports research that will lead to the development of new technologies, devices, or software for persons with disabilities.  Research may be supported that is directed to the characterization, restoration, and/or substitution of human functional ability or cognition, or to the interaction of persons with disabilities and their environment.  Areas of particular recent interest are disability-related research in neuroscience/neuroengineering and rehabilitation robotics.  Emphasis is placed on significant advancement of fundamental engineering and scientific knowledge and not on incremental improvements.  Proposals should advance discovery or innovation beyond the frontiers of current knowledge in disability-related research.  Applicants are encouraged to contact the Program Director Ted Conway at [email protected], or call (703) 292-7091, prior to submitting a proposal."

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The New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer's Disease
"Funded by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation and The Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, the major goal of this partnership program is to support important research in areas in which more scientific investigation is needed to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The program will also serve to encourage junior investigators in the United States and Israel to pursue research and academic careers in the neurosciences, and Alzheimer's disease in particular. Projects in basic and translational research related to Alzheimer's disease (AD) that are clinically relevant, will be considered. Projects that focus on healthy brain aging are also considered. For one of the awards, priority may be given to an investigator with a research interest related to healthy brain aging. Areas of research could for example include learning and memory, nutrition, exercise, cardiovascular risk factors, as they relate to the brain and the aging process. The applicant must be an independent investigator with assigned independent space as assigned by the departmental chair or equivalent official, and must be within the first ten years of receiving a doctoral degree by July 1, 2011. Exceptions to the ten year rule may be requested for unusual circumstances by emailing an NIH-style bio-sketch to AFAR at [email protected] .The proposed research must be conducted at any type of not-for-profit setting in the United States or Israel."

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