Respite Care Helps Older People Stay In Their Own Homes For Longer.

New research from the ROSA Research team led by Dr Stephanie Harrison examining the use of Respite Care in Australia was published in Journal of the American Medical Director’s Association (JAMDA) in October 2019.

Summary of Research: Respite services involve short stays in residential aged care homes (nursing homes) with the aim of providing planned or emergency care to people who have been assessed and approved to receive it and to give a carer or care recipient a break from their usual care arrangements. Yet, the evidence regarding the benefits of respite care in terms of delaying entry to long-term residential care was lacking. Our study showed that using residential respite care was associated with fewer days spent in residential care overall when people return home after using respite care. This research supports the use of residential respite care services being optimised for the future ageing population as a means of delaying entry to long-term residential care, allowing people to remain in their own home for longer.

The abstract of the scientific publication is available HERE on the JAMDA website, and full-text is available from the authors on request.

SAHMRI’s press release about this work can be found HERE.

Media relating to this study:

The study was reported on by the ABC online and in the ABC TV news.

ECR Poster Award for development of new frailty measure.

Congratulations Dr Jyoti Khadka from the ROSA Research Team for winning the SAHMRI Early Career Researcher poster presentation award at the SAHMRI Annual Scientific Meeting 2019 for his work developing a method for measuring frailty based on information routinely collected during an aged care eligibility assessment.

Khadka J, Moldovan M, Ratcliffe J, Inacio M. Development and validation of a frailty index using data from the Australian Aged Care Assessment Program: finding from the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA). SAHMRI’s Annual Scientific Meeting. 2019 October 2-3; Adelaide SA, Australia.

A new 2-year Postdoc position with the ROSA Research Team!

We are looking for another awesome Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join the growing ROSA research team at SAHMRI to conduct high quality research with a focus on health and health services for older people living with dementia and accessing aged care. If you are interested in being part of an ambitious and supportive research team working with ‘big data’ to improve the outcomes for Australians in aged care then this could be the perfect role for you!

For all the details, and to apply, please visit the job vacancy notice on the SAHMRI website or the advertisement on SEEK.

Join the ROSA Team as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow!

We are looking for an awesome Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join the ROSA team at SAHMRI to conduct high quality research with a focus on health and health services for older people with dementia and cognitive decline accessing aged care, including planning, execution, statistical analyses and publication. For all the details, and to apply, please see the information HERE on the SAHMRI Careers webpage. Applications are open now and will close on 10th May 2019.

Prevalence of Dementia is decreasing for People Accessing Aged Care Services in Australia

By analysing de-identified data from the Historical National cohort of the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA), we found that the age- and sex-standardized prevalence of dementia fell from 50% to 47% in long-term care 2008-2014 and from 26% to 21% in home care 2005-2014. This decline in dementia occurred in concurrence with a decline in cerebrovascular disease in long-term care but despite the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, malnutrition, obesity, depression and head injury increasing during this period. The decline in prevalence of dementia in these settings is critical to future projection estimates and for planning of services in Australia. 

The original scientific article is published HERE.

You can read the SAHMRI press release about this research HERE.

Various traditional and online news channels have reported on the research, for example, the ABC news, the Advertiser newspaper, and the Lead.

Join the ROSA Research Team!

We are looking for an awesome part-time (0.4 FTE / 2 days per week) Research Assistant to join the ROSA team at SAHMRI to help with research activities and day-to-day research administration tasks to support the smooth running of ROSA. For all the details, and to apply, please see the information HERE on the SAHMRI Careers webpage. Applications are open now and will close on 27th March 2019.

Prolonged Wait Time Prior to Entry to Home Care Packages Increases the Risk of Mortality and Transition to Permanent Residential Aged Care Services.

Using the ROSA National Historical Cohort, we evaluated the effect of wait time for home care packages in Australia, where a wait list of over 120,000 currently exists. After evaluating ~190,000 people who accessed aged care services between 2003 and 2014, we found long-term detrimental effects of waiting for services on mortality and transition to residential care.

Below you can find links to the original research paper, as well as some coverage of the research in the online media and other sources.

Original research article:

Visvanathan R, Amare A, Wesselingh S, Hearn R, McKechnie S, Mussared J, Inacio M. Prolonged Wait Time Prior to Entry to Home Care Packages Increases the Risk of Mortality and Transition to Permanent Residential Aged Care Services: Findings from the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA). The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. In press December 2018. Full text available online HERE.

SAHMRI press release:

You can read the SAHMRI press release about this research HERE.

Other reports of this research available online:

The Aged Care Guide (‘Australia’s number one aged care website’) reported on our research HERE.

The Community Care Review (Australia’s magazine on home and community-based care and support) reported on our research HERE.

Short video introducing the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA).

So, what is the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA)? And what is it’s purpose? Sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words, or so the saying goes. We hope this short 1-minute video (developed with Verbalize.Science) gives you a snapshot of what ROSA does and some of the passionate researchers who are working to guide improvements in the aged care and health care systems for older people in state, and more broadly across Australia.

ROSA was established in 2017 by the Healthy Ageing Research Consortium - a partnership of scientists, clinicians, aged care providers, and consumer advocacy organisations - all working together to improve the lives of Australians accessing aged care services.

ECR Poster Award for Research into Dementia Prevalence

Congratulations Dr Stephanie Harrison from the ROSA Research Team for winning the SAHMRI Early Career Researcher poster presentation award at the SAHMRI Annual Scientific Meeting 2018 for her work looking at the prevalence of dementia in Australians accessing aged care services!

"SAHMRI keeps track of SA's senior citizens" story in the Advertiser today.

"SAHMRI keeps track of SA's senior citizens" - have you seen the story in the Advertiser today? It highlights some of our work at the Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA) helping to identify best practice models of care and seeking to improve outcomes for older South Australians accessing aged care services. You can read the article HERE on the SAHMRI website.

You can also LISTEN in to the ABC radio recording of ROSA’s A/Prof Maria Inacio talking about the Registry of Older South Australians this morning (scroll through to 03:01:00 for the relevant part of the audio).

We are looking for a talented Data Scientist/Senior Data Scientist to join the ROSA team!

Want to join the ROSA Research Team at SAHMRI? We are hiring! We are currently looking for a talented data scientist (or senior data scientist) with experience in machine learning + statistical experience working with large longitudinal datasets.

Click HERE for more details about the position and to apply. Applications close on 25th October 2018.

"The Science of Ageing" - Upcoming "Science in the Pub" Event

Aging occurs to us all, resulting in fundamental changes to ourselves as time progresses. As we age it’s important to ask what is South Australia doing to understand and assist the older community? Can we slow undesirable aspects of the aging process? What happens to our brains as we age? Join us to find out about the science of aging.

The team at SciPub are excited to present “The Science of Ageing” on Friday 5th October at the Rob Roy Hotel (106 Halifax Street in the city). This event will showcase ageing related research that is being undertaken right here in South Australia. This event kicks off at 6:00 pm and will finish by approx. 7:30 pm (doors will be open from 5:30 pm for those who wish to arrive early for seat). CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER TO ATTEND.

The principal goal of SciPub is to make science engaging and accessible to the public. Each panel consists of three experts who deliver short, 10-15 minute presentations on their area of expertise and then discuss questions from the audience via a moderator. Panelists are selected primarily on their ability to effectively communicate science in an engaging and non-technical manner. SciPub is held in a pub so that scientists, aspiring scientists, and non-scientists can learn, discuss and think critically about hot topics in science.

The panelists for “The Science of Ageing” are:

• A/Prof Maria Inacio – Director, Registry of Older South Australians, SAHMRI

• Dr Tim Sargeant – Head the Neurobiology Section in the Hopwood Centre for Neurobiology, SAHMRI

• Dr Cedric Bardy– Senior Research Fellow, SAHMRI, and Senior Lecturer, Flinders University

Upcoming Research Seminar at UniSA - ROSA: Framework and Current Research

ROSA's Director A/Prof Maria Inacio will be talking at the upcoming UniSA Health Science Seminar 12-1pm next Wednesday 3rd October. Researchers are welcome to come along to hear about the unique Registry of Older South Australians (ROSA) resource and some of the exciting research currently underway by our team at SAHMRI.

How to RSVP other relevant details are in the image below.