The Maintain Your Strength (MYST) Study integrates major Australian and Canadian musculoskeletal databases (Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, Geelong Osteoporosis Study, Women Health Project) to study neurocognitive and musculoskeletal disorders together, thus filling a significant gap in knowledge while optimizing the epidemiological surveillance of dementia in Canada and Australia.
In addition, this collaboration will generate valuable knowledge on the nature and combinations of musculoskeletal conditions and risk factors for falls and fractures in patients with neurocognitive disorders. This information may significantly improve fall and fracture preventative interventions in community and aged care settings. The results of our study will also pave the way for developing new care pathways for people with dementia, including an application that can be used in clinical practice to screen for fall and fracture risk in this population. All these post-study strategic values underline that this international collaboration is the first step of a breakthrough in caring for older persons with neurocognitive disorders in Australia and Canada.
