Grant: Catalyst Grant: Analysis of CLSA Data - IPPH Mandate

Intrinsic capacity (IC) is a way of describing a person's overall physical and mental ability to function and live independently as they age. It includes how well someone can move, think, see, hear, and handle emotions. It's not just about whether they have a disease but how capable they are of doing everyday activities and enjoying life. For example, someone might have arthritis (a disease) but still be able to walk around and stay active (showing good IC). On the other hand, someone might not have any major health problems but still struggle with memory or moving around, which would mean their IC is lower. It's an important concept because it focuses on how well people can live independently and stay active as they get older, instead of just focusing on whether they're sick or not. Measuring IC simply means looking at how well someone can do basic everyday things that show their physical and mental abilities. This includes measuring movement, memory and thinking, emotional well-being, senses and energy. These simple checks give a snapshot of how capable a person is of living independently and staying active. Despite measuring IC being considered a simple task, health professionals rarely measure it in their older patients. This is due to a lack of time and practical tools to measure IC or guide them on what to do after measuring it. In collaboration with colleagues in Ireland and Australia, using data from 8,000 participants in large aging studies, we have developed new methods to measure IC in older adults. This time, we would like to access the CLSA data to improve the accuracy of our method and integrate artificial intelligence to facilitate prompt measuring of IC in clinical practice. This proposal will develop new tools for measuring IC and establish educational activities on IC for health professionals in the future. This will improve their understanding of the importance of targeting IC to improve resilience and function in our older population.