Researchers at the BPMRI's Busselton Health Study, have been awarded funding from the WA Department of Health and Western Australian Health Translation Network's COVID-19 Research Grants Program to investigate the physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Busselton baby boomers.
In collaboration with the School of Psychological Sciences at UWA, the study will assess a range of factors including general health, depression, anxiety and stress levels among 5000 adults in the City of Busselton who attended the ongoing Busselton Healthy Ageing Study.
Investigators will explore whether certain groups of people with different patterns of chronic conditions are more susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes, as well as identifying the factors related to resilience and coping mechanisms during the pandemic.
Busselton Population Medical Research Institute's centre director, Dr Michael Hunter said this was an important study as it was not known how the social distancing measures and other restrictions have impacted the physical and psychological health of people with pre-existing chronic conditions during the pandemic.
"Many of the interruptions to usual activities or strategies people use to manage chronic conditions may result in worsening of symptoms and increased use of health services," he said.
"For other people it may be that some of the changes to daily routines have had a beneficial impact. Working from home may mean more free time for engaging in healthy activities resulting in better management of some chronic conditions."
BPMRI chair and project lead professor Alan James said the study would identify which combinations of pre-existing chronic diseases posed a greater risk for poor mental and physical health and the findings would be used to inform health care and support services in the region.
"The longer term outcomes of the project would also contribute to surveillance of COVID-19 and health outcomes in the community," he said.
"For instance infection status and susceptibility in relationship to chronic disease will be investigated in future phases of the study if case numbers ever grew in the region over the coming years."
The Busselton Healthy Ageing Study is a large longitudinal community-based cohort study of adults were aged 46 to 69 when assessed at baseline, and are now aged 52 to74 years.
Baseline data on over 5100 adults was collected between 2010 and 2015 and included detailed mental health measures and clinical assessments across a broad range of health conditions.
A follow-up of this cohort commenced in 2016 and 3000 people from the original 5100 participants have been retested.
The remaining 2000 people will be invited for clinical testing over the next two years.
The study has found a high prevalence of multi-morbidity among baby boomers, with more than 74 per cent of the cohort having two or more chronic conditions.
Pre-pandemic levels of depression and anxiety were highly prevalent (20 per cent) and featured prominently with other chronic conditions.
Dr Hunter has urged any Baby boomers (adults born 1946 to 1964) in the region who have previously taken part in the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study to check their e-mail for a link to the survey, or contact the centre on 9754 0548 for more information.
