The Swedish National study on Aging and Care in Blekinge (SNAC-B)

The national study SNAC - The Swedish National Study on Aging and Care, includes four participating areas: SNAC-Blekinge, SNAC Kungsholmen, SNAC Nordanstig and SNAC Skåne (GÅS). In all four areas, a research centre conducts a population study and a health care system study. (Metadata related to the main study SNAC and the other participating areas can be found under the Related studies tab).

SNAC- Blekinge is headed by a steering group of researchers with Professor Johan Sanmartin Berglund as principal investigator. The project is supported by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Kristianstad University and Linnaeus University in Växjö. Blekinge County Council is cooperating with the municipality of Karlskrona.
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In addition to the national design and objectives a number of separate research questions have been of special interest to the research team in Blekinge. These are as follows:
- Dental health and care - a general assessment of elderly between 60 and 96 years of age with a particular focus on identifying osteoporosis using dental X-ray examination.
- Multi-morbidity - developing an instrument for estimating incidence and prevalence of diseases in the general population.
- Occupation and retirement - the purpose being to study the differences between those working and those being retired or pre-retired at the ages between 60 and 66.
- Cardiovascular and cognitive diseases - does patients being treated in primary care know about incipient heart? Also is studied the relation between heart and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus and cognitive function.
- Quality in the care of the elderly - a study about how social contextual and structural factors relate to the need of care and services.
- OTC´s and non prescription drugs - the significance of lifestyle and psychological factors for the use of OTC and prescription medication.
- Functional performance and stress-reactivity - examining how variability in functional performance in a homogenous age group relate to experimental induces stress testing the stress hypothesis on ageing.

Population study:
The aim of the population study is to find out how among other things social environment, lifestyle and earlier diseases effect health and wellbeing in old age. The design is longitudinal and interdisciplinary and the study examines elderly between 60 and 96 years of age. Medical examinations, interviews, psychological tests and distributed of questionnaires are repeated every third or sixth year. The baseline examination was conducted during the period 2001 to 2003. When closed in spring 2003 examination had been made on 1402 subjects out of 2312 (aged 60-96 years old) that was invited to take part in the study. The participation rate was fully (slightly above) 60% for the whole age range from 60 to 96 years of age. Several follow-ups have been conducted.

Health care system study:
Karlskrona municipality Mature Management has a need to raise awareness of aging and the care of the elderly in the future to improve care for older people. During the autumn of 2009 begins, therefore, SNAC, in cooperation with BTH, on behalf of the Mature Management, a research in Karlskrona on the municipality's elderly care is tailored to the needs of the elderly. The same type of study is done simultaneously in a number of other municipalities in the country.
The survey covers all persons aged 65 years and benefiting the elderly of Mature Management in Karlskrona and / or have a lasting home care / rehabilitation. Data collection have been conducted at several occasions.

Purpose:
The aim is to provide information about how social environment, lifestyle and earlier diseases effect health and wellbeing in old age. One of the special interests to the research team in Blekinge is dental health and the impact to general health. Show less..