Welcome to this addition of the ISLAND Project newsletter.  I am one of the Project Officers for the ISLAND Project, Justine Keay.  Like many Tasmanians, I have a family member living with dementia.  A year ago, my 80 year old step-father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. 

In the early stages of dementia, we know his cognition will not improve and will get worse.  For those of you who have cared for a loved one with dementia, you understand this experience better than me.  And, I am sure, you would like fewer people in our community to have to experience this condition.

Your contribution to the ISLAND Project research helps us to achieve this goal - reducing the incidence of dementia in Tasmania.  As you are aware this is a 10 year research project, and the information you give us each year is very important because it enables us to track changes related to dementia risk across Tasmania.

We know that your contribution to this type of research involves sharing lots of information without getting a personal diagnosis or feedback. It’s very different than going to a doctor. This taps into one of the key reasons for our research: there is a lot more that needs to be done to arm doctors with evidence about what you can do in your daily life to reduce your dementia risk. ISLAND will help build this evidence!

The information you provide by doing the annual assessments is incredibly valuable for informing future health policy and practice. Access to the annual assessment closes on November 30 - go to this link and log in!

The ISLAND Project will be the largest dementia prevention project in the world!  To those that have completed the annual assessments, THANK YOU!  You have helped Tasmania lead the way and people across the world will be grateful for your contributions to dementia prevention research.

If you have questions about the ISLAND Project, how it is progressing, or why we are asking you to complete cognitive tests or give a blood sample, please join us for a free webinar this Thursday - register here.

Why we are asking for a blood sample in the annual assessment

What are biomarkers? Biomarkers can be any characteristic of the body that you can measure. Some common examples are protein levels in the blood, imaging results from X-rays, or even an individual’s blood pressure. Biomarkers can tell us a lot about the human body as they may indicate underlying conditions or diseases.

How do we collect them? Biomarkers are found throughout the body, so can be measured through a variety of methods. A common example in research is providing a blood sample which can include a number of biomarkers. The benefits of using blood-based biomarkers has already been demonstrated in the early detection and screening of many conditions and diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. Biomarkers also provide an unbiased way of tracking an individual’s condition over time.

What can they tell us? For this reason, biomarkers are important for the discovery of methods for risk reduction. Biomarkers can change up to decades before the emergence of clinical symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss. Researchers can look to see how an intervention can reduce dementia biomarkers. This avoids the need to wait the extra years to find out whether the intervention reduced the rates of dementia. In this way, biomarkers can greatly speed up dementia risk research. Biomarkers can also help in identifying possible biochemical pathways involved in dementia’s underlying diseases. This then helps to guide research into what drugs may help to reduce dementia risk.

Why is this important?  As dementia develops, there are many different biomarkers that can tell us about different aspects of the underlying disease. These include the levels of proteins in the brain, blood or eye and even a reduced ability to smell. Critically, we still don’t know whether modifiable lifestyle risk factors can reduce biomarkers of dementia. This makes The ISLAND Project an ideal opportunity to aid in the much-needed discovery of factors that can reduce dementia risk. The immediate impact of this may not be apparent. However, contributing to this rich biomarker dataset will allow researchers to answer critical questions about dementia risk reduction in the future. This means a great potential to reduce the incidence of dementia for future generations.

Join us for a webinar - our progress and plans

Do you have questions about the annual assessments?  Why are we requesting a blood sample for research?  How is the ISLAND Project progressing and what difference does your contribution make to dementia prevention research?

Join Professor James Vickers, Dr Larissa Bartlett and the ISLAND team for a Free Webinar session, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26TH, 6PM.

Register here.

Register for Webinar

The University of Tasmania received funding from the Australian Government. Views and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of its authors, and may not be the same as those held by the Department of Health.

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