Halcyon symposium abstract

The Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) collaborative research programme brings together an interdisciplinary group of scientists working with nine UK longitudinal cohort studies to understand three fundamental aspects of ageing: physical and cognitive capability (the capacity to undertake the physical and intellectual tasks of daily living); psychological and social wellbeing; and the underlying biology of ageing, including genetic programming and physiological regulation.  Since the nine cohorts currently span the fifth decade to the oldest old, and since most of these cohorts have been followed from childhood, this collaboration provides a powerful life course paradigm for understanding healthy ageing but also risk of frailty and cognitive decline.
                                                                                                           
HALCyon investigators will summarise the latest study findings up to the time of the meeting, in two sets of presentations:

• Capability and wellbeing, including effects of body size and childhood and area-level socioeconomic position on physical capability; and lifetime socioeconomic position on quality of life

• Biology of ageing, including effects of cortisol activity and telomere length on physical capability, and the genetics of ageing 

HALCyon is funded by the cross-council New Dynamics of Ageing programme.  The nine surveys represented are the Lothian 1921 and Aberdeen 1936 cohorts from the Scottish Mental Survey; the Hertfordshire Cohort and Ageing studies; the Boyd Orr cohort; the British 1946 and 1958 birth cohorts; the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing; and the Caerphilly Study.

For more details on attending please visit http://www.ageingconf.org/