the LASA NEWS page

December, 2011
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam is shortlisted by NWO among the six most important academic studies of change in the social sciences.
Because continuation of these studies is considered to be crucial for the social sciences in the Netherlands, NWO invites them to apply for a contribution to meet the costs of their data collection. LASA has been shortlisted on the basis of a proposal that was written by EMGO+ scientists in collaboration with scientists from the Department of Sociology of VU.

February, 2011
The LASA study gets a prestigious investment grant
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam study team received notice that they will be awarded a prestigious investment grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. This is the result of a joint effort by researchers from the faculty of Social Sciences and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, led by Profs. Theo van Tilburg and Dorly Deeg and Dr. Martijn Huisman. This grant will enable the build-up of a new lasa cohort including elderly from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Demographic, cultural, economic, and social shifts in the late twentieth century created the ‘Third Age’, in which people enter old age with the prospect of spending a decade or more free from social obligations in relatively good health and wealth. Productive social activities (volunteering, informal care giving), frequent social network interaction, intensive leisure activities and a high quality of life supposedly characterize the Third Age. However, the current decline in economic prosperity and retreat of the welfare state may hamper the onset and the duration of the Third Age for future cohorts of young old. Fragmentary empirical findings further indicate that the necessary conditions for spending early old age in this way may not be equally distributed across all societal groups. Investigating disparities in possibilities of enjoying the fruits of the Third Age requires a study design that disentangles the impact of macro level societal changes and micro level individual developments in the life course on social participation. Such a study design will be created by adding a sample of 55-64-year-old indigenous people and ethnic minorities in 2012 to the ongoing Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). This will lead to a “multi-cohort-sequential longitudinal study on ageing”, with samples including potentially vulnerable groups such as lower socioeconomic groups and ethnic minorities: cohorts included in 1992 and 2002, which have been having three-yearly follow-up observations, and the 2012 cohort; all with follow-ups from 2015 onwards. This design offers opportunities for major enrichment: 1) compare changes in early old age across three cohorts with different starts in life, with focus on social participation and quality of life; 2) compare changes with ageing of ethnic minorities to the indigenous popula¬tion; 3) study multidimensionality of developments across social, behavioural and health-related domains. Moreover, it will enable partitioning age-effects from period and cohort-effects. Currently, there are no Dutch ageing studies –and only few in the world– that are able to do this.

January, 2011
Cognitive decline in late-life: biological markers and early identification of persons at risk for dementia
Tessa van den Kommer defended her thesis on the 7th of January, 2011. She developed two classification models for use in primary practice for early identification of persons at risk for future dementia. For this purpose, data from two population-based studies were used, the LASA and Swedish OCTO-Twin study. In addition, Van den Kommer studied the role of several biological markers on the trajectory of cognitive functioning in persons 65 years and older. She focused specifically on markers of cholesterol homeostasis, lipoproteins HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and homocysteine. Also, she studied the modifying effect of genetic risk factor ApoE e4 and several inflammatory markers on these associations.

November, 2010
Muscles growing older: inflammatory markers and sex hormones as determinants of sarcopenia and decline in physical functioning
Laura Schaap defended her thesis on November 12, 2010. She investigated whether increased levels of inflammatory markers are associated with decline in muscle mass (sarcopenia) and muscle strength in older men and women. She also investigated whether lower levels of sex hormones are associated with decline in muscle strength and physical functioning. Results are based on data from the LASA study and the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study (USA).

September 2010
Health decline and well-being in old age: the need of coping
Angele Jonker defended her thesis on September 10, 2010. In this thesis she investigated the association between persistent deterioration of functioning and well-being, and the mediating and moderating effects from available coping resources on this association. A narrative review on an intervention that may promote coping resources is given. Furthermore an RCT studying the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program is presented and a report on predictors for benefitting from participating in the program.

June 2010
LASA researchers receive grants on behalf of the the National Care for the Elderly Program
Marjolein Broese van Groenou, senior researcher of the LASA-group, and working at the department of Sociology at the VU University, has received a grant to investigate the care networks of older adults, the cooperation and tuning among care providers. The grant is provided by ZonMw, on behalf of the National Care for the Elderly Program. 200 frail LASA-respondents and their informal and formal helpers will take part in this study. Two junior researchers will take part in the study, one at the Department of Sociology and one at the Department of Organization Science.

Also ZonMW granted a research proposal of Martijn Huisman, Marjolein Broese van Groenou and Dorly Deeg of LASA to investigate:
1) what subjective state of mastery in relation to care is in the view of frail older people, 2) to what extent it is related to perceived quality of formal care and quality of life, and
3) to what extent there are socioeconomic inequalities in subjective state of mastery and their contribution to socioeconomic inequalities in perceived quality of care and quality of life.

This project will be subsidized within the framework of the National Care for the Elderly Program. A small selection of participants will be invited to participate in open interviews and in focus group discussions to give their views on what they believe mastery entails. This is the first time that scientific research will construct a measure of mastery – already an often used concept in ageing research – departing from the viewpoints of older people themselves.

June 2010
Active LASA-team
Members of the LASA-team participated in a beachvolley tournament organized by the VUmc. An impression of the team:

May/June 2010
LASA researchers visiting Berlin
LASA researchers met researchers from the German Centre of Gerontology in Berlin. The aim of the meeting was to get to know one another and each other’s research better, to find shared interests in each other’s work and to tentatively explore possibilities for future collaborations. Read more

May, 2010
Renate Dorrestein visiting LASA
The famous Dutch author Renate Dorrestein is writer on location at the VU-university in 2010. We organized a speed-date lunch with several of our researchers to tell her all about our work. Read her blog at the VU-website (in Dutch).

May, 2010
Stress, the brain and cognition
Lotte Gerritsen has defended her thesis on may, 18, 2010.
In this thesis she examined to which extent psychosocial stress and depression are related to early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Data were used from two large cohort studies, the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) and the SMART-Medea study.

February, 2010
Social adjustment to widowhood. Changes in personal relationships and loneliness before and after partner loss.
Maurice Guiaux has defended his thesis on february 5, 2010. More information

January, 2010
Two historical reports from LASA are now available online
Autonomy and well-being in the aging population 1, report form the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam 1992-1993, D.J.H. Deeg and M. Westendorp-de Seriere (eds.) (1994)
content report 1
and
Autonomy and well-being in the aging population 2, report form the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam 1992-1996, D.J.H. Deeg and M. Westendorp-de Seriere (eds.) (1998)
content report 2

September, 2009
Prevention of falling in older persons with a high risk of recurrent falling
Geeske Peeters has defended successfully her thesis on this subject on Sept. 18, 2009 at the VU-university. Press release

July, 2009
19th IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics
Every four years, the World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics represents a unique and irreplaceable event attended by experts from around the world to discuss the latest findings in the field of ageing. Many LASA-researchers presented their findings at this very important congress in July 2009.

March, 2009
Advisory Board Meeting
From March 25 till March 27 2009 LASA took time for reflection and making plans for the future of lines of research in LASA. The Advisory Board, consisting of international experts in a variety of scientific domains provided comments and advice to the LASA-team.