- Overall The overarching UM-OAIC goal is to build on the sciences and therapeutic applications of exercise and rehabilitation by: 1) advancing our understanding of the mechanisms by which exercise and activity-based rehabilitation interventions directed at specific impairments affect multiple body systems underlying functional performance; and 2) developing and testing interventions to restore function and minimize disability following acute disabling events and gradual declines related to serious chronic diseases. The functional impairments and disabilities that occur in older people emanate from acute events, such as stroke, heart attack, and hip fracture, or reflect the progression of chronic diseases. Older people aging with chronic diseases have a reduced aerobic capacity and develop sarcopenia, fatigue, and neuromotor and cognitive impairments that reduce their physiological reserve, impair their ability to function independently, and increase their level of medical care and risk for institutionalization and death. This pathway of how disease leads to disability has been discussed extensively. The UM-OAIC mission embodies this process and focuses on the restoration of function in order to improve function in those with impairments, and prevent or delay further progression in those who are already disabled. This has been aptly referred to as enablement. (9,10) The UM-OAIC will continue to focus its research on enablement by identifying the impairments associated with disabling conditions, investigating the mechanisms and pathophysiology of the impairments, developing exercise and activity-based interventions that target these mechanisms and deficits, testing them in clinical laboratories/centers, and then adapting them for implementation and further testing in community settings.
The aims of the UM-OAIC are to: 1) Conduct research that examines the mechanisms underlying the functional impairments associated with stroke, hip fracture, and prevalent chronic diseases in older people. 2) Design novel, exercise and activity-based rehabilitation interventions that produce clinically relevant outcomes and study the mechanisms underlying them. 3) Translate interventions developed in UM-OAIC clinical laboratories and in other clinical centers for implementation and rigorous evaluation in community settings. 4) Support pilot and exploratory studies (PESs), development projects (DPs) and externally funded projects (EP) that examine the mechanisms underlying disability and the processes of recovery, and that design and test interventions for the restoration and maintenance of function in clinical laboratories and settings outside the medical center. 5) Foster the career development of junior faculty/scholars from multiple disciplines into independent, academic scientists with expertise in the study of older persons with disabling diseases through mentor-based, bench-to-bedside translational research training that includes didactic and experiential/practical- applied training in conducting independent, aging research.
- Overall The increased life expectancy of older Americans makes the maintenance of functional independence a major public health priority. The functional impairments and disabilities that occur in older people can emanate from acute events, such as stroke, heart attack, and hip fracture, or reflect the progression of chronic diseases. The UM-OAIC?s outstanding environment for research and research training in geriatrics, exercise, and rehabilitation sciences allows investigators from multiple disciplines to work together to develop and test novel exercise and activity-based rehabilitation interventions to restore function and minimize disability following acute disabling events and gradual declines related to serious chronic diseases.
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