Tasks

Research tasks according to thematic parts:

HEALTH

  • organization of the collection of data on the onset of the examinees’ functional disability/duration of the preserved functional ability (DFS phenotypes) in the Zagreb retirement homes (persons of very old age, 85+ yrs.)
  • bio-statistical analyses of the health status data set; particularly the analysis of the association between the health status with longevity and DFS phenotypes
  • the analyses of the cause of death structure in persons of very old age (the analyses of the mortality data)
  • the association analysis of the ˝longevity genes˝ loci and telomeres’ length with health status characteristics
  • the analysis of pharmacogenetic results, i.e. the examination of the possible effects that the frequencies of ADME genes’ risk variants might have in everyday pharmaco-therapeutic practice in this age group (85+)
  • evaluation and selection of the results that could be applied in public health and medical practice; dissemination of new information and project outcomes to expert services and institutions as well as their public presentation and communication with media.

CULTURE

  • the analysis of the association between the examined socio-cultural variables with longevity and duration of the preserved functional ability phenotypes
  • the quantitative analyses of the socio-cultural data set in persons of very old age. Specifically, the analyses will be directed to the scales of psycho-social and physical functioning, the self-assessment of health and the quality of life
  • the analyses of the socioeconomic status of the persons of very old age living in the Zagreb retirement homes
  • the choice and input of the life history data; qualitative analyses of the cultural data set (including attitudes, quantity and quality of the family and social contacts, leisure time structuring, key moments from the personal history, work history, migration, war experiences, etc.)
  • consolidated qualitative and quantitative analyses of socioeconomic, psychological and behavioral characteristics of the investigated sample of elderly persons; the formation of composite variables of the socio-cultural dataset
  • harmonization of the analytic approaches with those implemented within the pan-European SHARE study (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe).

BIOLOGY

  • collection of the DNA samples of the persons of younger adult age (20 – 35 years, 100 examinees) in order to form a comparative sample for the allele frequency comparison with that of persons of very old age
  • selection of the so called ˝longevity genes˝ and ADME genes’ polymorphisms, as well as sending DNA samples to the chosen commercial laboratory for the genotypization
  • introduction, validation and implementation of the new analytic protocol for the telomeres’ length determination in the Laboratory for Molecular Anthropology, Centre for Applied Bioanthropology, Institute for Anthropological Research
  • bio-statistical analyses of the biological data set; particularly the association analysis between the biological data set with longevity and DFS phenotypes in examinees of very old age
  • inter-generational and inter-population comparisons of allele frequencies (so called ˝longevity genes˝ and functionally relevant ADME genes).

ENTIRE PROJECT

  • coordination of all project assignments
  • organizational and administrative tasks
  • education and mentoring of the young researchers (postdoctoral researcher, PhD student)
  • supervision and harmonization of all bio-statistical analyses; execution of combined data sets analyses (including all three data sets variables).