As one of the coldest spells of weather in decades hit Ireland, a research team funded by the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) was beginning work in Belfast and Dublin.

Many older people die from the cold each winter but very little is known about indoor temperatures or the behaviour of older people in response to cold weather. CARDI has given a grant to a group led Professor Patrick Goodman from Dublin Institute of Technology to study these questions over two winters, along with the Institute of Public Health and the University of Ulster.

The financial freeze is another important and topical theme to be studied.  Paddy Hillyard, emeritus Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, will work with colleagues at University College Dublin and the University of Bristol to study the impact of the recession on older people. They will examine the extent of inequality among retired people, including those with private and public pensions.

They are two of the eight projects given sums of up to €25,000 each in Call 2 of the CARDI research grants programme. It promotes all-Ireland research that can lead to improved policies and services for older people. Most of the projects began this month.

Davis Coakley, Co-Chair of CARDI and Professor of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital, said:

“We were delighted to receive many excellent proposals from universities throughout Ireland and from the voluntary and community sector. These grants, worth €164,000, will help CARDI throw light on several crucial issues. The findings should bring benefits to the daily lives of older people and ensure that both parts of Ireland are geared up to meet the needs of an ageing society.”

The other grant recipients are:

Brigid Barron from the Caring for Carers organisation based in Co Clare, will team up with the University of Ulster to examine stress and fatigue among carers of older people, a problem that can lead to depression and the breakdown of the care provided.

Dr Emer Begley, Age Action Ireland, is working with Trinity College Dublin and a Northern Ireland health and Social Care Trust to ask older people themselves how they see the growing problem of elder abuse and the sort of support they need if they are victims.

Dr Stephen Byrne, University College Cork, will collaborate with pharmacists in Cork and Belfast on a major global health issue – the inappropriate prescribing of drugs to older people in nursing homes.

Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer among men in Ireland, north and south, and a group headed by Dr Anna Gavin, NI Cancer Registry, will try to find out why older men are less likely to receive treatment than younger ones.

Dr Sylvia O’Sullivan, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, has formed a research network with a focus on dance and creative movement to promote successful ageing through both physical activity and social inclusion.

Dr Jayne Woodside and fellow researchers at Queen’s University Belfast will join academics at TCD to develop educational materials to help encourage behaviour change in diet and physical activity among patients with mild cognitive impairment.

Call 3 of the CARDI grants programme will open in the spring and will have a budget of more than €300,000.

Notes for editors

For more information or interviews please contact Paul McGill, Strategic Research Officer, CARDI, on 0044 28 9069 0066 or 00353(0) 867 904 171.