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NIA Awards Grants to Expand Study of Older Americans
By
Stephen J. Baetge
Staff Writer
The
National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded four grants totaling nearly
$19 million to be paid over the next two years as it expanded the
nationwide Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
The HRS has been collecting and analyzing data on the combined health, economic
and social factors influencing the well-being of Americans over age 50.
Since its inception in 1992, the NRS has become the nation’s premier long-term
study and data resource on America’s seniors.
The grants from funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act will supplement the cooperative agreement between NIA and the University
of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which conducts the study.
“The HRS is an outstanding partnership between government and academic
research, and these new funds will create exciting new opportunities for the
thousands of researchers who make use of this great resource,” commented
David Weir, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan and principal investigator of
the HRS.
Weir expects the additional funds to build on the HRS voluminous portfolio of
research data which has become a role model for studies in over 20 countries
and part of an international collaborative agenda of research on aging.
The grant awards focus on data collection in four crucial areas.
The funds will be used to double the current oversampling of minority adults
between the ages of 51 and 61 in the study to improve the statistical power of
HRS data on the sources of disparities in health and economic status in minority
populations.
Grant monies will also be used to repeat collection of biomarker and psychosocial
data in 2010, from study participants from whom such data was first collected
in 2006. This will enable researchers to analyze changes in these measures over
time and link changes to other life circumstances and health events.
Genome research to allow researchers to identify potential genetic risks and
influences on a broad range of health conditions as well as social and behavioral
aspects of normal aging will also be conducted with the new funds. The research
should allow a better understanding of the environmental contexts in which genetic
risk and protective factors are expressed.
Researchers will also conduct a pilot program on methods for diagnosis of dementia,
cognitive impairment without dementia or normal cognition for individuals in
a subsample of HRS participants age 70 or older to help in the understanding
of trends in the prevalence, causes and outcomes of dementia in the United States.
“Since it began in 1992, the HRS has provided a wealth of information on
the physical and economic health of older Americans,” stated NIA Director
Richard J. Hodes, M.D. “With this infusion of Recovery Act funds, we can
augment the quality of the data we are collecting, expand minority participation
in the study cohort and add genetic analysis to the study.”
In addition to the funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act the Social Security Administration (SSA) has increased its longstanding support
of the HRS, providing an additional $3 million of non-Recovery Act funds over
the next two years.
SSA funds provide support for the interviews of the new minority sample expansion
and will also include linkages to pension and earnings data for these new members
of the HRS.
“We are gratified by the commitment of the Social Security Administration
to the enlargement of the Health and Retirement Study’s minority sample,” said
Richard Suzman, Ph.D., director of NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social
Research. “This will allow for more in-depth analyses of minority population
data, which is critically important at a time when the older population is becoming
more diverse.”
Suzman also highlighted the opportunities for cutting-edge analyses that will
be afforded as a result of the Recovery Act funding.
“We are excited by the potential for transforming social and behavioral
science by adding genetic information to such a large, national longitudinal
study,” explained Suzman. “The ability to link genetic information
with social, psychological and economic data should result in much deeper understanding
of how we age.”
The HRS, now in its 17th year, follows more than 22,000 people over the age of
50, collecting data every two years, from pre-retirement to advanced age.
To keep the study fully representative of the population over age 50, the HRS
regularly adds new groups to the survey sample.
The study provides data about these older Americans to help address the challenges
and opportunities associated with population aging in the United States.
The study’s unique combination of data allows for better understanding
of the nature of health and well-being in later life.
NIA, a part of the National Institute of Health (NIH), leads the federal effort
supporting and conducting research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral
issues of older people.
For more information on research and aging, go to www.nia.nih.gov.
The NIH includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates
the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases.
For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
This page and its contents ©2009
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
