{"id":799912,"date":"2019-09-30T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=372051"},"modified":"2019-09-30T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:00:08","slug":"summit-county-to-become-a-living-laboratory-for-high-altitude-medical-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-county-to-become-a-living-laboratory-for-high-altitude-medical-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County to become a \u2018living laboratory\u2019 for high altitude medical research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Sponsored content brought to you by St. Anthony Summit Medical Center<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The High Altitude Research Center will serve as a living laboratory in Summit County for understanding optimal health while residing at high altitude. The study aims to provide useful healthcare information to people who live in the community.<\/em><\/strong>
Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s widely known that altitude has effects on the body \u2014 people from lower elevations often experience symptoms such as dehydration, sleep difficulties, higher blood pressure, fatigue and more \u2014 but a large-scale local study aims to dig deeper to determine how living at high altitude affects long-term health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hasn\u2019t been done with a large, population-based study, to our knowledge, anywhere in the world,\u201d said Dr. Marshall Denkinger, chief medical informatics officer and lead investigator for Centura Health.<\/p>\n

Denkinger is referring to the \u201cliving laboratory\u201d that\u2019s being created in Summit County by the High Altitude Research Center, a collaboration between Centura Health, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Medicine. Kicking off later this year, the High Altitude Research Center will be studying Summit County residents to learn more about the effects of high altitude on the human body.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to provide useful information to people who live in the community to use for their healthcare decision-making,\u201d Denkinger said, \u201cand to use this broad-based data to guide further, more specific research about high altitude\u2019s health effects and medical conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Summit County?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summit County\u2019s life expectancy, 87 years, is the highest in the nation, according to a 2017 study<\/a> published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.<\/p>\n

Combine that with the fact that Summit County\u2019s population is young, meaning they\u2019ve only been living at high altitude for a generation or two, and you\u2019ve got an interesting group of people for a high altitude-based study, Denkinger said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe population in Summit County was about 2,500 people in the mid-1960s, and now we have 30,000 residents \u2014 plus another 10,000 to 12,000 people in surrounding areas \u2014 living at or above 9,000 feet,\u201d Denkinger said. \u201cSummit County sort of chose itself for this study by virtue of the fact that it is the youngest high-altitude population in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study<\/strong><\/p>\n

Researchers are excited about learning what we don\u2019t already know about high altitude\u2019s effects on health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some window into the future of what we\u2019re going to find based on what we already know \u2014 but what is the prevalence of altitude-related medical conditions, and what are those conditions,\u201d Denkinger said.<\/p>\n

Researchers want to study Summit County residents who live here year-round, or at least for six months out of the year. They\u2019ll also be looking for residents who have been here for at least two or three years.<\/p>\n

The High Altitude Research Center will be kicking off a coordinated public campaign very soon to provide detailed information to the community and begin the process of screening for eligibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to be a valid study, it should be representative of the population of Summit County,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a large group of people, we will identify a slightly smaller group of people, and there will need to be enrollment criteria that ensures we don\u2019t get any selection bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using this sample population, crossing all boundaries of gender, age and ethnicity, researchers will begin to understand basic and more complex areas of the population\u2019s health. Participants will answer a detailed questionnaire and then subsequent steps will be determined as the study progresses.<\/p>\n

Unassailable research<\/strong><\/p>\n

The High Altitude Research Center is still working on the specifics, such as the methodology, participants and other details which must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (ethical review).<\/p>\n

Denkinger said there\u2019s been a painstaking attention to detail during these preparations for the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to take great care that we design this correctly. From a scientific standpoint, the study must be solid,\u201d he said. \u201cResearchers never want people coming back and picking apart their study\u2019s design or statistical analyses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expectation is that the Institutional Review Board approvals will come sometime in October, which means the High Altitude Research Center can launch its living laboratory soon thereafter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to give back to the Summit community incredibly helpful information about how to improve  residents\u2019 life and health, and potentially longevity, at high altitude,\u201d Denkinger said.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Sponsored content brought to you by St. Anthony Summit Medical Center The High Altitude Research Center will serve as a living laboratory in Summit County for understanding optimal health while residing at high altitude. The study aims to provide useful healthcare information to people who live in the community.Getty Images It\u2019s widely known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-799912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 17:00:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}