Whilst my background is primarily in cognitive decline research, I have found a great interest in the occurrence of frailty in later life. The more I read about frailty the more confusing it became due to a research field with lots of contrasting views. However, frailty can affect a vast number of people in later life and I think being able to identify those who are at highest risk is a crucial step for us to be able to get people on a healthier trajectory with a lower risk of frailty and subsequently a lower risk of disease, disability and death. Accordingly, I decided to try to gain a better understanding of it by making it the main focus of my PhD. 

I am fortunate enough to work with the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 for my PhD. As a brief background of this cohort, in 1936 every 11 year old school child in Scotland was given a cognitive assessment. In the early 2000s these assessments were found in a basement, the researcher’s equivalent of striking gold. Since then hundreds of these individuals, now in their late life, have been followed up five times and have been measured with cognitive tests, brain scans, genetic markers and much more. I have been able to utilise this unique resource to see how frailty changes and test which factors influence change.