Grant: Project Grant

Some commonly used medications, such as medications for depression, allergies and sleep, have been found to decrease older adults' ability to move and walk. When this happens, older people may fall and need to be treated in hospital. Previous studies have shown that these medications may cause people to become confused. They may also cause people to walk more slowly and take more time to stand up from a chair. These are considered the usual ways that people's ability to move around is measured in a study. Our project will look at these measurements when certain medications are stopped or the doses are lowered. Our project will also look at how technology like "smart" watches can measure the ability to move around. Using technology like smart watches can improve how to measure movement in research labs and at home. This study will also look at how stopping these medications affects how a person thinks and understands. The research team includes different experts. The experts include pharmacists, an engineer, a kinesiologist (a human movement specialist), geriatricians, a physiotherapist, and a family physician. We believe the project will help answer several important questions, such as "Which groups of older adults benefit the most from decreasing or stopping potentially harmful medications?" and "How can we best measure changes in movement?" We also think that testing and confirming that smart watches accurately measure movement will help future studies. It will also be easier to study movement if people can wear a watch and not have to go into a research lab or only have to go for shorter periods of time. Overall, the results of this study are important to assess how decreasing or stopping certain medications affect movement and how to best measure changes in movement.