Table 1.

Areas of Focus in Cardiology Research in Older Adults

Area of Focus	Types of Research	Examples	Examples of Identified Age-Related Trends
Identifying age-related changes	Basic, preclinical Longitudinal cohort studies of healthy persons	Aging animal studies, animal and human cell and tissue studies throughout lifespan Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging	Genomic/proteomic alterations, changes in immune function, rest and exercise CV function, caloric restriction studies, Heterochronic parabiosis studies, ‘hallmarks of aging’ ↓ in GFR, resting and exercise CV function, SBP, DBP and PP, hormone levels, pulmonary function, fat-free mass
Discern CVD risk factors	Longitudinal cohorts (community dwelling, of different racial/ethnic background, etc) Case-control studies	Cardiovascular Heart Study, Framingham Heart Study, ARIC, MESA, Health ABC, Women’s Health Initiative, etc	Development of risk score (CVD and stroke prevention) Define relative risk of traditional CVD risk factors and those more common in older adults (frailty, physical and cognitive impairment, multi-morbidity (dyads or triads)
Trial designed for complex and/or vulnerable older adults	Dedicated RCT Secondary Analyses within larger RCT RCT stratified on common age-related variables Adaptive studies Pragmatic clinical trials	ALLHAT, HYVET STAREE, PREVENTABLE

ALLHAT = Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial; ARIC = Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities; CV = cardiovascular; CVD = cardiovascular disease; DBP = diastolic blood pressure; GFR = glomerular filtration rat; Health ABC = Health, Aging and Body Composition; HYVET = Hypertension in the Very Elderly Trial; MESA = Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis; PP = pulse pressure; PREVENTABLE = Pragmatic Evaluation of events And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in older adults study; RCT = randomized controlled trial; SBP = systolic blood pressure; STAREE = STAtin therapy for Reducing Events in Elderly.