The Program Development Core of CDEHA focuses on development of the pilot (seed) grant program. This Core has the following specific aims: 1) developing and nurturing promising new small-scale seed and supplement projects relevant to the Center's theme areas; providing junior investigators with advice and assistance with the development of their research, access to diverse expertise, and mentorship from a senior faculty member; and supporting the preparation and submission of applications for peer reviewed research or career development awards; 2)encouraging the pursuit of careers in the study of issues in demography and economics of health and aging; and 3) developing and augmenting training opportunities such as workshops and seminars and serving as a focal point for innovative multidisciplinary research on important questions in the demography and economics of health and aging. The pilot projects are at the core of CDEHA's past and planned activities. These projects are highly leveraged investments into aging research at Stanford, and they meet additional goals of the University and of the research community more generally. They boost the careers of junior investigators, they stimulate interest in aging , research, and they encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. A central feature of the seed project program is the matching of a junior (advanced trainee or junior faculty) investigator with a senior faculty mentor, an arrangement that advances both substantive research and faculty development. Mentors are available from the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, economics, business, law, medicine, health research and policy, biological sciences, psychology, sociology, the Morrison Institute for PopulationResearch Studies, the Stanford Institute for International Studies, and the VA Health Economics Research Center. We propose to support four new pilot/seed projects initially, with two projects awarded in each of the first two years. The first and second projects will be initiated in Year 1 of the renewal, and the third and fourth projects will be initiated in Year 2 of the renewal: First, a study of affective states across several age groups, to determine the effects of emotions on health choices; second, a micro data analysis of the variation in treatment and control rates of hypertension among the elderly, stratified by ethnic minority; third, an analysis that addresses the relationship between obesity and the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance; and fourth, an examination of eider care, gender, and son preference in the context of the role of cultural transmission and diffusion during the process of rural-urban migration in China. Seed research conducted by earlier grantees has led to insights in such areas as racial and ethnic disparities in technology utilization in aged populations; socioeconomic and psychological factors affecting health care decisions among the elderly; cost-effectiveness of medical procedures common in the aged; and trends in and determinants of health care utilization, functional status outcomes, and Chinese uxorilocal marriage patterns among the elderly.
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