A word from the directors
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Welcome to NEAR’s first newsletter.
Researchers in the scientific field of aging and dementia have a long tradition of collaboration in Sweden. In 2016, we started discussing a new cooperation that could allow the coordination of the numerous databases embedded in several well-known Swedish population-based longitudinal studies on aging and health.
Two years later, the Swedish Research Council (VR) offered us the opportunity to make these plans concrete by announcing a call for National Infrastructures. Thanks to two subsequent grants, NEAR is now running routinely and we have reached the consolidation and expansion phase. However, our vision remains the same: We aim to create an infrastructure of high-quality big data to facilitate, support, and promote clinical and epidemiological research on aging within and outside academia.
With NEAR, our ultimate goal is to add healthy years to as many lives as possible. In addition, we want to optimize older adults’ care by promoting person-centered and integrated healthcare services. This newsletter will update you on all our initiatives and results – thank you for being with us!
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Laura Fratiglioni, Director, NEAR. Photo: Maria Yohuang
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Debora Rizzuto, Vice Director and Scientific Coordinator, NEAR. Photo: Stefan Zimmerman
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NEAR has now entered phase 2.0, with a focus on consolidation and expansion. Due to that, a newly formed steering group has been appointed. It is comprised of members with nationally and internationally recognized expertise in aging research and research infrastructures, as well as societal issues related to aging and the user perspective.
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Steering Group Members:
Björn Halleröd, Chair, Professor in sociology, University of Gothenburg
Wilhelmina Hoffman, President of the Swedish Dementia Centre (SDC)
Anne Ekdahl, Senior lecturer, senior physician, specialist physician, Lund University
Luigi Ferrucci, Scientific Director of National Institute on Aging, USA
Kaare Christensen, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark
More about the NEAR organization
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Davide Liborio Vetrano has joined the NEAR Central Operational Group as a Scientific Promoter.
You are a new member of the NEAR team. Tell us who are you?
I am originally from Italy. I have an MD degree and a geriatric medicine specialization from the Catholic University of Rome. My research interests include the development, impact, and risk profile of two major geriatric syndromes; multimorbidity and frailty.
What will you do at NEAR?
As a scientific promoter, I will work to increase NEAR’s visibility in the scientific arena. I will also promote collaboration between NEAR and several national and international potential partners, both from academia and industry.
What did you do before coming here?
I worked for several years on international projects focused on identifying clinically relevant models to measure multimorbidity and frailty in older people.
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Davide Liborio Vetrano, Associate Professor in geriatrics and Scientific Promoter of NEAR. Photo: Federico Triolo
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What do you do when you get home?
In my spare time, I mostly spend time with my family, engaging in outdoor activities, baking pizza, and watching movies. In the remaining time – during the night – I play guitar and paint.
Motto: Live when everyone else sleeps.
Read more about Davide's role in NEAR
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NEAR is expanding with two new databases, SWENIS (Swedish national inventory of health and care) and TRYBO (Sheltered Housing).
SWENIS collects nationally representative data on residents' health and quality of life.
It also collects data on care provision characteristics and organization in Swedish residential aged-care facilities.
TRYBO is studying sheltered housing* with a focus on health and how residents rate their quality of life.
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Sheltered housing:
| • | A relatively recent form of accommodation in Sweden where at least one mover should be at least 70 years old
| | • | There must be common areas for socializing and a host at certain times of the day |
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“We are very happy to welcome SWENIS and TRYBO to NEAR. We believe that the expansion of NEAR with two databases focused on residential care facilities and sheltered housing increases the range and adds valuable perspectives to our NEAR data", says the NEAR Scientific Coordinator, Debora Rizzuto.
Read more about the SWENIS and TRYBO inclusion in NEAR
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The Swedish National study on Aging and Care (SNAC): For those aged 81 years and above, follow-up data collection started in 2022 and is planned to be completed by the end of 2024. In 2023-24, examinations of 60-year-olds born in 1961-63 are planned at SNAC-Kungsholmen, SNAC-Skåne, SNAC-Blekinge, and SNAC-Nordanstig.
The Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies: In 2023, examinations of 70-year-olds born in 1952-54 started and will be completed in 2024. In 2024, a follow-up of people who previously participated in the H70 study and were born in 1944 is planned.
SHARE-Sweden: During the fall of 2023, the 9th wave of data collection for the bi-annual SHARE panel study will be released. The 10th wave of data collection will start in the fall of 2024. Participants must be at least 50 years old.
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Pia Lundgren (nurse) during an interview for SNAC-K. Photo: Mai Engström
SWENIS: A second follow-up of data collection is planned for 2024 where personnel, residents, and managers of nursing homes will be followed-up.
TRYBO: A new wave of data collection will start at the end of 2023 with an old cohort and new residents in sheltered housing.
Read more about the included databases in NEAR
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Database manager workshop
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On March 9-10, NEAR database managers held a two-day workshop to discuss and develop overall database management matters. The first day was focused on publishing and sharing your data. Three representatives from the KI Data Access Unit (DAU) presented about open access to research data, sensitive data, and the legal aspects of storing data.
The second day was devoted to the NEAR application process and data delivery from local databases. Overall, the workshop generated many discussions and creative ideas, which will be implemented for future work within NEAR.
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New NEAR results: Sleep and cognition
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Cognitive impairment and sleep disorders are common determinants of older adult health. However, earlier studies found mixed and inconsistent results on the association between the type of sleep disturbance, e.g., short nighttime sleep or waking up early, and the cognitive impairment affected, e.g., memory or executive functioning.
A NEAR-based study explored cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between several self-reported sleep disturbances and cognitive domains in 5631 persons aged 71-84 years (mean age 78 years).
"We found that excessive daytime napping (>2 hours) was associated with poorer cognitive abilities such as episodic memory, verbal fluency, perceptual speed, and executive functioning", says the study's first author Marieclaire Overton.
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Title of the research project:
Sleep Disturbances and Change in Multiple Cognitive Domains among Older Adults: A Multicentre Study of Five Nordic Cohorts
Databases included:
1) The Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies (H70); 2) Swedish National study on Aging and Care – Skåne (SNAC-S) and 3) Kungsholmen (SNAC-K); 4) Kungsholmen Project (KP); 5) Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE).
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Marieclaire Overton, Postdoc and first author of the study. Photo: Private
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The study also showed that insomnia symptoms (i.e., sleep latency, waking up at night, and early awakenings) were associated with poorer episodic memory. Participants sleeping for shorter or longer than 7-8 hours per night had a steeper decline in perceptual speed.
"Our results pinpoint the importance of targeting specific sleep behaviors, such as insomnia and daytime napping, in future lifestyle interventions for older adults. We hope these results can help counteract cognitive decline", says Overton.
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Marieclaire's best tips for using NEAR data:
Get to know the data before analyzing it to avoid mistakes. Why not contact researchers connected to the respective aging studies? Ask about the best ways to categorize variables or patterns in the data/sample that only experienced researchers of the specific study understand and know.
Read more about other NEAR results
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Therese Rydberg Sterner is currently using NEAR data to explore whether inflammation impacts late-life depression differently in women and men.
Hello Therese, how is your project coming along?
Hi! I am currently working 50% on postdoctoral projects. The NEAR project plan, ethical approval, and variable selection are set. I have received data from two of the three databases so far. I would say that I am in the “data harmonization phase”, right now focusing on how data for depressive symptoms have been collected and if depression diagnoses may be comparable between studies.
Why are you using NEAR data?
For many years, I have worked in the H70-studies (also part of NEAR). NEAR offers a unique opportunity to test my hypothesis in larger samples, pooling databases from several Swedish aging studies.
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Title of the research project:
Sex-specific differences in peripheral inflammation for the association between late-life depression and the transition to dementia – a NEAR study
Databases included:
1) The Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies (H70); 2) Swedish National study on Aging and Care - Kungsholmen (SNAC-K); 3) and Blekinge (SNAC-B).
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Therese Rydberg Sterner, Postdoc and first author of the project. Photo: Ragnhild Larsson
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using NEAR data?
Advantages include pooling data and generating larger samples with increased statistical power. In addition, NEAR helps out (a lot!) with communication with all database managers which shortens the administrative time and workload for you as a researcher. Disadvantages include how long it takes to find relevant variables and harmonize data.
Best life hack:
I guess I am a "do everything, and all at once" person with a stronger connection to the gas pedal than to the brakes. One of my mottos is that I don’t want to wake up regretting what I did not do. My go-to life hacks for coping with a stressful time include throwing a lot of humor in its face, eating “kex-choklad”, meditating, watching an episode of Modern Family before bed, and hanging out with my own family and friends to remember what´s important.
See all ongoing projects in NEAR
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Infrastructure collaboration
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Collaboration – Focus of the 2022 workshop
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The 2022 NEAR workshop focused on collaboration. Representatives from five other research infrastructures: SIMPLER, CORS, STR, SWEDPOP, REWHARD*, were invited to present their organizations. The purpose was to create more opportunities to work together, learn more about other infrastructures’ work, and what we can learn from each other.
The workshop also focused on ongoing NEAR projects and ended with a team activity that challenged participants to find opportunities for potential work projects within NEAR. In addition, participants were challenged to find projects that could be linked to any of the other infrastructures represented on-site.
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Karl Michaëlsson SIMPLER, Elisabeth Engberg SWEDPOP, Patrik Magnusson STR, Laura Fratiglioni NEAR, Hugo Westerlund REWHARD, Mikael Hjerm CORS. Photo: Maja Rudolphson
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* Swedish Infrastructure for Medical Population-based Life-course and Environmental Research (SIMPLER); Comparative Research Center Sweden (CORS); Swedish Twin Registry (STR); Swedish population databases for research (SWEDPOP); RElations, Work and Health across the life-course - A Research Data Infrastructure (REWHARD).
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NEAR was founded in 2018 and promotes and supports aging research by stimulating and facilitating the use of longitudinal cohort data from several well-known Swedish studies on aging and health. It is based on a collaboration among eight Swedish universities, includes 15 databases linked to registers, and cooperates with other national research infrastructures. NEAR provides health data from more than 180 000 older adults followed for more than 50 years.
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