Funding outcome

Canada is in a healthcare crisis. As more people get older, managing long-term illnesses is becoming a major concern. Right now, about 33% of Canadian women live with at least one serious chronic disease, and this number is expected to grow. As people age, they naturally lose muscle mass, strength, and quality. When someone has a chronic disease, these changes can get much worse. This can lead to a cycle of tiredness, trouble exercising, and muscle loss, which causes big changes in the body. This condition is known as sarcopenic obesity-when a person has low muscle mass, high fat mass and increased weight. This condition puts people at higher risk for poor quality of life, more hospital visits, and serious illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, and cancer. Sarcopenic obesity is also linked to frailty, meaning people struggle with everyday tasks because their muscles are weak or not working well. As women age, their bodies go through more changes than men's, and the changes are much larger. They tend to gain more fat, lose bone strength, and lose both the amount and quality of muscle. Because of these changes, older women have a much higher chance of getting multiple chronic diseases than men the same age. This study will look at how changes in body composition are connected to chronic disease in aging women. The goal is to learn more about this relationship and find new ways to improve the health of aging women through future research and targeted programs. We plan to take what we learn through this project, and apply it to programs that can be brought to women where they are in the community, to help them live well as they age.