Funding: Ageing societies

Several recently funded projects will assess the impact of ageing in developing countries.

The issue of ageing populations is not unique to the West; in developing countries, the proportion of elderly people is growing at an even faster rate.

Ageing brings with it increased risk of chronic disease, including heart disease, stroke and dementia. Professor Martin Prince from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, has been awarded a programme grant to follow 15 000 older men and women over three years in Latin America and China, aiming to identify genetic and lifestyle risk factors for dementia.

In Nigeria, a country undergoing rapid demographic and social changes, Professor Oye Gureje of University College Hospital in Ibadan has been awarded funding to look at the impact these changes are having on the chances of successful ageing. Professor Gureje aims to identify environmental and behavioural factors that can be modified to promote healthy ageing among the country's population.

Also in Nigeria, Dr Isabella Aboderin of the University of Oxford has been awarded a postdoctoral training fellowship to explore social aspects of ageing, including the factors that determine older people's access to and use of health services, and how their ability to care for themselves affects their families and wider society.

See also

• Wellcome Focus on Ageing (new publication now out exploring why we age, older people in modern society, the biology and genetics of ageing and whether research on ageing can help us tackle age-related diseases)