More funding guarantees longevity for elderly study
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
GRANTS totalling $1.2 million will pay for the second and third stages of a Bay of Plenty study aimed at learning how and why New Zealanders of advanced age live long lives.
The grants will pay for follow-up interviews to be conducted with participants in Whakatane, Opotiki and Te Kaha, after the first year-long stage of the Bay of Plenty study ends in March.
Called Life and Living in Advanced Age: A Cohort Study in New Zealand (Te Puawaitanga o Nga Tapuwae Kia Ora Tonu), the University of Auckland project aims to enrol 600 Maori aged 80 to 90 years and 600 non-Maori aged 85 years from Whakatane, Opotiki and the wider Bay of Plenty.
Supported in Whakatane by the university and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, the study is sub-contracted to the Ngati Awa Research and Archives Trust, which employs a team of three trained interviewers and a nurse.
The team – Pauline and Tom Chapman, Ngamihi Crapp and co-ordinator Kiri Martin – has already completed 40 interviews around the district and contacted many other potential participants.
People are interviewed in their own homes or wherever they prefer and nurses conduct health checks on those who want them. The second and third stages of the project will involve follow-up interviews to see how participants’ health has changed. Questions will cover their quality of life, social supports, whanau relationships and physical and psychological functions.
Research fellow and project manager (Maori) Mere Kepa said interview team members were passionate about their job and had made good progress. The enthusiasm of many participants made the job easier and the involvement of many, particularly pakeha subjects, had come about by word of mouth.
Interviewers were forming good friendships with some, and had met many who were lonely and needed someone to talk to. While some were living with extended family, others were on their own.
“Many of the men like to reminisce – they want to sit and tell stories,” Mrs Crapp said.
“It can take two or three visits to complete a whole interview, because some of them get quite tired.”
Depending on the health of participants the interviews could be time consuming, but provided a unique opportunity to learn from the wisdom participants had accumulated over the years, Mr Chapman said.
“This is a unique group of people in their twilight years and we are listening to all that wisdom.”
The interviews will end in March 2011, and follow-up visits will continue for up to a decade.
The Bay of Plenty was chosen as a study area because it has the highest proportion of people over 65 in New Zealand, and high numbers of Maori.
In Opotiki and Te Kaha the interviews have been contracted to Te Runanga a Ngati Irapuaia. The project is co-ordinated by Hine Loughlin who is also responsible for the health checks and Opotiki interviewers are Rachel Harris and Doreen McCorkindale. The team also has the support of kaumatua Hone Kameta.
The study area also includes Te Kaha, where the project co-ordinator and interviewer is Pania McRoberts.