Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Ageing populations and improvements in life expectancy are driving large increases in the prevalence of dementia, posing major challenges to healthcare systems internationally. There are currently 47 million people living with dementia worldwide, and this number is expected to triple by 2050. Compounding this problem is the increasing prevalence of multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more chronic conditions, among older adults. Not only are many common chronic conditions risk factors for dementia, such as diabetes and hypertension, but the co-occurrence of conditions also challenges the delivery of health services, which are generally organized around single conditions. This has led to many people with multimorbidity receiving fragmented care. This may be particularly detrimental for individuals with dementia, as dementia has been shown to negatively impact mortality, institutionalization, and functional outcomes for people living with multiple chronic conditions. My research objectives are to further advance understanding of longitudinal associations between multimorbidity and dementia in Ontario. I will achieve this through pursuit of the following three research questions: Research question 1: What is the impact of both number and type of chronic conditions on the incidence of dementia? Research question 2: What is the impact of the independent and concurrent severity of diabetes and hypertension on risk of incident dementia? Research question 3: What is the impact of guideline-concordant care for diabetes and hypertension on the risk of incident dementia? The results from this research will be highly valuable to at-risk populations, public health officials, system planners, and a broad array of researchers, and will advance our understanding of the etiology of dementia.