The proposed program, Interdisciplinary Research Training in Public Health and Aging seeks a five-year continuation of the current award, which was funded originally in 2008 and is supported through April, 2013. The overall objective of the program is to provide training in the social and behavioral determinants, and their mediation through or interaction with biological susceptibility processes of adverse health outcomes in older age, such as reduced survival, geriatric syndromes and co-morbidities, cognitive decline and dementia, and disability. The rationale for this focus lies in the potential of this research t identify new opportunities for the prevention, management and treatment of aging-related chronic health conditions and their functional consequences. The program defines its disciplinary foundation in social epidemiology, while emphasizing collaboration with scholarly activity from other disciplinary perspectives, including other public health sciences, social sciences, biological sciences and medical sciences. This application requests funds for the support of 4 pre-doctoral trainees. The Program will be located in the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health (CSEPH), Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health. CSEPH provides an exceptionally rich intellectual environment for an interdisciplinary training program in public health and aging, due to the interconnections of CSEPH and its faculty with a large number of research Institutes and Centers at the University of Michigan. The training program includes 25 mentors with well-established research and training records encompassing a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The training program consists of a structured program of teaching and mentoring with the following inter-related components: 1) mentored research activity; 2) course work in the epidemiology of aging and related subject matters, and participation in public health and aging research seminars; and 3) participation in other training and enrichment opportunities available at the University of Michigan.
High quality training in public health and aging will prepare trainees for outstanding careers at the forefront of research and policy at the intersection of social sciences, public health and medicine. The program is designed to help them contribute new information that will inform preventive, clinical and policy strategies aimed at improving the health and quality of life of future generations of older adults.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 36 publications
