| Health and Wealth in an Aging America: A Briefing for Journalists |
| September 2004 -- The National Institute on Aging (NIA) gathered eminent researchers on September 28 to discuss with journalists, “How can we prepare to meet the challenges of an aging population?” The answers, at least according to this NIA-supported group of leading social, behavioral, and economic scientists, will come from creative thinking and new approaches to some of today’s most difficult questions, such as the rise in health expenditures and major gaps in personal savings for retirement. |
National Longitudinal Mortality Survey (NLMS) & Longitudinal Employment and Household Dynamics Survey (LEHD) Users Workshop | Adobe PDF (9.0K)
NIA recently awarded supplemental center funds to the Program on Aging at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). NBER, in collaboration with staff from NIA, hosted a 1-day workshop on the NLMS and the LEHD. Both data sets are partially sponsored by the Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) program, but are underutilized by grantees. The workshop's objective was to introduce these emerging data sets to researchers from NIA’s 11 Demography Centers and others by generating new NIA applications proposing to use the data sets.
The workshop provided participants the opportunity to learn what the new data sources provide, what issues they can be used to address, and how they can be obtained. The presenters familiar with the data were identified. This workshop was held on January 22, 2004, in Cambridge, MA.
Performance Measurement Workshop | Adobe PDF (69.5K)
BSR frequently funds demographic and epidemiological population-based studies that have historically relied on self-reported measures of disability (e.g., traditional Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) to assess physical functioning. BSR developed recommendations for possible inclusion of performance tests as adjuncts to traditional self-reported measurement tools in such studies.
BSR organized a 1-day meeting on effective uses of physical performance measures in population-based studies. This meeting reviewed existing performance protocols and discussed several important issues relating to use in population-based studies. BSR developed a consensus document that outlined the various physical performance protocols available for use in various studies of aging. The goal was to develop a reference manual useful to researchers interested in using such performance protocols in their studies. This workshop was held on December 12, 2003, in Bethesda, MD.
Small Interventions with Large Effects: The Psychological Foundations of Effective Policies | Adobe PDF (299K)
This 1-day conference, sponsored by the Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences (CBRSS) at Harvard University and NIA, convened a multidisciplinary group of social scientists to explore the potential for small, inexpensive and noncoercive psychological and sociological interventions to influence human behavior in a range of policy settings. Changing human behavior, even for someone's own good, can be a huge undertaking. The purpose of this interdisciplinary conference, featuring research from the fields of economics, social psychology, and public health, was to shed light on the particular mechanisms and conditions under which simple noncoercive psychologically styled means of changing behavior can provide easier and possibly more effective ways of aligning good intentions with actions. This conference was held on November 14, 2003, in Cambridge, MA.
Defining and Measuring Environments for Genetic Studies of Aging Workshop | Adobe PDF (12.4K)
This workshop explored issues related to incorporating environmental factors from the behavioral and social sciences into genetically informative studies of aging. Development of this area is critical to understanding central issues surrounding gene expression, including:
- Gene-environment interactions
- Gene-environment covariation
- Gene expression (i.e., how it is affected by social contexts and behaviors)
The meeting convened scientists from diverse backgrounds who completed critical work related to the workshop's theme. The presentations and discussions addressed issues related to methodological, conceptual, and substantive approaches to defining and measuring environments, gene-environment interplay, most fruitful study designs, and how to foster the required interdisciplinary research. A special journal issue based on the presentations is being considered. The workshop was held February 26–27, 2003, in Bethesda, MD.
Quantitative Reasoning in Adult Development and Aging Meeting | Adobe PDF (38.6K)
Workshop participants provided expertise across a wide range of fields: numerical cognition, quantitative and document literacy, mathematics, judgment and decisionmaking, neuropsychology, and behavioral economics. The specific topics covered at the workshop included:
- Age-related changes in numerical processing strategies
- Proportional and probabilistic reasoning processes
- Estimation skills, investment, and risk-taking behaviors
- Financial abilities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Additional smaller meetings may be planned, and a program announcement may be issued. This meeting was held July 15–16, 2002.
Genetics, Behavior, and Aging Meeting | Adobe PDF (48.6K)
This meeting explored directions for developing behavioral genetics and aging research. It included experts who represent the major human studies on behavioral genetics and aging and representatives who use animal and model organisms. There were 12 presentations and 6 discussants. The papers that were presented will be submitted to a special edition of the Journal of Behavior Genetics. This meeting was convened on March 29, 2002.
Genetics, Behavior, and Aging Meeting | Adobe PDF (23.8K)
This meeting was sponsored by the NIA's BSR and Neuroscience and Neuropsychology programs. The meeting addressed themes that provided a basis for developing a funding initiative in this area. Specific themes included: (1) identification of gaps in knowledge concerning the impact of various contexts on cognition, (2) the feasibility of research on the confluence of different kinds of contexts on cognition, (3) the importance of natural versus artificial contexts, (4) how findings from these types of studies can be conceptualized more generically, and (5) the implications of contextual influences on cognition for the design of intervention studies. This meeting was held April 8–9, 2002.
Note: This meeting was held as a result of one of the recommended research initiatives in the recent National Research Council report, The Aging Mind: “The NIA should undertake a major research initiative to understand the effects of behavioral, social, cultural, and technological context on the cognitive functioning and life performance of aging individuals and to build the knowledge needed to intervene on the cognitive functioning and life performance of aging individuals and to build the knowledge needed to intervene effectively in these contexts to assist individuals’ functioning and performance.”
Disability Decline: What We Know and What We'd Like To Know | Adobe PDF (132K)
This workshop engaged leading scholars in a collaborative exploratory discussion of the characteristics, causes, and consequences of disability decline in the United States, specifically investigating what is known about disability trends and what should be learned from future research. The workshop:
- Identified research findings related to disability trends that represent areas of agreement in the research community
- Identified areas of ambiguity or disagreement
- Developed targeted foci for future investigations
The workshop also provided the foundation for both follow-up research activities and one or more follow-up meetings to compile new research findings and to develop and extend the collaborative exploration of issues relating to disability. The workshop was held on November 30, 2001. A summary report of the workshop is available in both MS Word and PDF formats. MS Word | Adobe PDF (132K)
Gerontology Society of America Presentation | MS PowerPoint (169K)
The BSR gave an MS PowerPoint presentation to the Gerontological Society of America. The presentation included BSR's organizational chart, key contacts, areas of emphasis, cross-cutting principles, goals, and research topics; NIA-funded resorces; scientific reports by the National Academy of Science; BSR development areas; and research topic areas in Genetics, Behavior, and Social Environment. The presentation was given on November 15, 2001.
