Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Frailty, disability, depression and cognitive impairment in ageing; untangling complex relationships in the older population

Objective

Jorge Luis Borges once wrote that “Everything touches everything”, and in doing so elegantly described both the beauty of graph theory and the multi-factorial experience of human ageing. Graph theory provides a framework for investigating the complex relationships in areas such as interpersonal relationships, electricity networks, and human cell structures. In ageing research, the relationships between the concepts of frailty, disability, depression and cognitive impairment remain poorly understood, and the methods used to understand these relationships are limited by unrealistic assumptions. For example, to measure frailty a number of indicators will be used to create an overall ‘score’, this assumes that what is important is a person’s score, and ignores direct relationships between the indicators (i.e. weight loss is not directly related to exhaustion). Preliminary work suggests this is an assumption that does not reflect the reality of the ageing process. To overcome this limitation, graph theory can be used to develop a more complete representation of relationships between concepts of ageing while still enabling us to identify how specific indicators group together to form constructs important in human ageing such as: frailty, disability, depression and cognitive impairment. Using graph theory, a network model will be built to describe these processes and assess intra-individual differences. The data will come from a community sample that is representative of the Irish population aged 50 and older. The results will be of use to both researchers and clinicians. The model will help researchers develop targeted interventions aimed at preventing adverse health outcomes and an android application will be developed to assist clinicians in their day to day practice of gerontology. If pre-frail people can be identified by GPs or public health nurses then it may be possible to help them before frailty leads to disability and loss of independence.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)

Coordinator

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
EU contribution
€ 50 000,00
Address
COLLEGE GREEN TRINITY COLLEGE
D02 CX56 Dublin
Ireland

See on map

Region
Ireland Eastern and Midland Dublin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0