This program project builds on and expands the research conducted on RAND's previous NIA program project grant by renewing it for five years under the research them, """"""""Health and Economic Status of Older Populations."""""""" The research conducted within the program project will contribute to the following long-range goals: understanding the effects of wealth on the health of older populations, understanding how the organization of health care delivery affects health and how older individuals' choices among health care plans are affected by wealth, understanding trends in savings accumulation and cash-out behavior and the causes and consequences of that behavior, and improving public policies intended to enhance the health and wealth of the elderly population. As achieving these goals would be problematic without better definition and measurement of the principal variables involved, a substantial portion of the research effort will be devoted to improving the measurement of health and economic status. As did its predecessor projects at RAND, this program project will have an international scope; researchers will examine societies on both sides of the demographic transition from a rapidly growing population to an aging one. The program project will include eight component projects on these topics: (1) the bias in household surveys of income and wealth when respondents choose among a set of consecutive ranges; (2) the meaning of health in social surveys in developing countries; (3) the effect of wealth and income on the health of persons of middle age and older; (4) effect of different health care delivery options (HMOs, etc) on quality of care and health status among the elderly in a developing country; (5) health status and its relation to economic factors in Malaysia; (6) factors influencing insurance choices by the Medicare population; (7) consequences of pension cash out on the economic status of older Americans; and (8) long-term changes in savings behavior. Projects (4) and (5) supplement field research already funded by other agencies. The program project also includes an administrative core and data management and computing core. These two cores and the program project approach that unites all components will perfect efficiencies in research support and facilitate interaction with researchers elsewhere while attracting young researchers to the study of aging issues. Project staff conserves the expertise accumulated through the predecessor program projects and includes researchers who assisted in collecting some of the datasets to be used-experience that enhances understanding of the data's potential and limitations.
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