Date: 13 July 2017
Time: 8-9AM
Venue: Seminar Room T09- 04, Level 9, NUHS Tower Block
Speaker: A/Prof Ng Tze Pin, Professorial Fellow, Dept. of Psychological Medicine, NUH
Chairperson: Prof Kua Ee Heok, Senior Consultant, Dept. of Psychological Medicine, NUH
Brief Abstract:
Using data from the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies (SLAS) and the Frailty Intervention Trial, this presentation will summarize and discuss the prevalence of frailty, its healthcare and societal impact, its social and biomedical risk factors and correlates, in particular with cognitive impairment and depression, and blood biomarkers of dysregulated homeostatic pathways, in particular steroid hormone and insulin signalling-related anabolic pathways and energy metabolism, and immune cell and inflammation homeostasis.
Importantly, physical frailty is reversible, and the effectiveness of nutritional, physical and cognitive training interventions has been demonstrated in a recent randomized controlled trial of pre-frail and frail older persons in the Singapore Frailty Intervention Trial (FIT).
These findings herald an upcoming surge in translational research and implementation projects to screen, prevent and treat frailty in community and clinic settings to prevent or delay functional decline and institutional care, falls and hospitalization, and premature mortality in Singapore’s ageing population.