AGS/NIA Conference Series on delirium, sleep disorders, and urinary incontinence

Abstract

In 2014, a new NIA U13 award allowed my colleagues and I, working closely with our NIA partners, to refocus the AGS/NIA Conference Series on three common geriatric syndromes 1 -delirium (2014), sleep disorders (2015), and urinary incontinence (2016). The goal of this series was to offer an update as regards relevant clinical lessons learned, while at the same time also laying the ground for future explorations of pathophysiological connections that link these common geriatric synromes to each other, to other relevant conditions such as for example frailty, and to overarching predisposing risk factors and drivers including biological aging. 1,2 The 2014 conference entitled "Delirium in Older Adults: Finding Order in the Disorder" highlighted the existence of delirium as a multifactorial geriatric syndrome, as well as the role of multicomponent interventions shown to be helpful in attenuating the contribution of varied risk factors. Proceedings of this conference were published in this journal, 3 with recommendations and access to speaker slides provided in Table 1. This conference was followed by a remarkable growth in multidisciplinary translational studies addressing delirium. Most importantly, the creation of the NIAfunded Network for Investigation of Delirium across the U.S. (NIDUS) in 2016 provided the perfect vehicle for promoting collaborations between varied disciplines and different institutions, while also enhancing standardization and methodological rigor.The conference on "Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Aging: New Avenues for Improving Brain Health, Physical Health and Functioning" was held in 2015 with a report also published in this journal. 4 In addition to specific recommendations pertaining to this topic (Table 1), this conference also began to explore the vitally important clinical and pathophysiological connections linking disorders of sleep to common difficulties involving cognition and voiding.This paper is part of the Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Institute on Aging special collection edited by Alexander Smith and George Kuchel. Once complete, you can explore the rest of the collection here: https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/15325415/specialcollections.

Happy 50th birthday to the National Institute on Aging: Where would geriatric medicine and care of older adults be without you?

“…The answers to these and other important questions lie in a collection of exciting reports that address progress at NIA from the perspective of NIA-funded centers of excellence and major ongoing collaborative networks [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] ; AGS/NIA Conference Series Advancing Geriatrics Research, [13][14][15] as well as efforts to train the next generation of leaders in aging research. [16][17][18][19] When evaluating the history of the NIA it is easy to be impressed by the sheer magnitude of the nation's investment in NIA's mission, which at $ 4.4 billion a year (9.3% of the entire NIH budget) makes NIA the largest funder of aging research around the globe.…”