A resident physician from the Geriatrics service of the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote, a center attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, has been awarded the Dr. González Jaraba Special Research Grant, awarded by the Official College of Physicians of Las Palmas for her end-of-residency work.
The work presented by Patricia Mateo, called Healthy Aging: Multidimensional community intervention program, analyzes how physical exercise programs and cognitive stimulation help reverse frailty and sarcopenia in older people, in addition to improving psychofunctional performance.
The study received a total of 164 points from the jury of the Research and Stay Grants edition of the Official College of Physicians of Las Palmas, which made it the best research among the more than 50 research projects that were submitted to this call.
This is a prospective study approved by the Ethics and Biomedical Research Committee of the University Hospital of Gran Canaria Dr. Negrín where the functional and cognitive profile of more than 250 older adults is analyzed. The work also analyzes the changes in autonomy, muscle mass and strength, cognitive performance and executive capacity in more than 100 older adults after six months of attending a healthy aging program that includes physical exercise and cognitive stimulation.
The study is also an innovative interdisciplinary investigation in which professionals from Physiotherapy, Psychology and Geriatrics have collaborated.
This research seeks to demonstrate how healthy aging is an achievable reality, and to transmit to the population that it is possible to age well by optimizing capabilities to the maximum and maintaining autonomy. This project is also aligned with the sustainable development goals within the framework of the Decade of Healthy Aging 2020-2030.
The award recognizes the effort of resident internal physicians who enhance their training with investigations of these characteristics while developing their work as healthcare professionals.
