The oral research component of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), was initiated in 1978 by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). It was designed and conducted by NIA to evaluate the physiological and pathological factors that influence the oral health and function of individuals of different ages. The BLSA is a large longitudinal study with an open-panel design conducted by the National Institute on Aging to investigate a range of scientific hypotheses about the aging process. In 1986, the National Institute of Dental Research joined NIA in a collaborative research initiative to continue the study. Human volunteers return periodically to the BLSA site to undergo multiple health assessments including the oral health evaluation made by Branch staff. In 1993 the scope of the oral research component was broadened to include studies of alveolar bone loss in the oral cavity, the detection and application of oral molecular biological markers for systemic disease, and an expanded periodontal evaluation implementing protein markers and DNA microbial probes for early disease detection. The implementation of these additional areas of investigation within the BLSA presents an opportunity to enhance the overall understanding of age-related changes in the oral cavity. A major effort of the Oral Health Promotion, Risk Factors and Molecular Epidemiology Branch has been to increase the number of volunteers seen annually by the oral component. The number of volunteers increased from 100 annual visits to over 300 visits. Given that the sample size has increased dramatically since inception of the study, it may now be possible to clarify many of the unresolved questions and issues regarding aging and oral health. Most of the efforts for this year were geared toward data collection and editing. Data collection continued for most of the year but was curtailed at the beginning of the third quarter of the fiscal year. Nearly 1250 volunteers were examined during the period July 1993 to July 1997. A vast biospecimen depository has been established and plans are underway for centralization of specimens and data with NIA. Plans are being made to include information on the study, (including type of data and specimen collected) on a Web site. The approach to be used in coding linear attachment loss from the study radiographs was finalized. Assessment of radiograph quality is underway.
