Most measures of adult health and longevity in the United States lag well behind those of other wealthy countries. Despite widening recognition of this crisis, we have only a limited understanding of its causes and few strategies to reverse them. This proposal, a renewal of the highly successful Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America (NLCHDD) funded for the past five years by the National Institute on Aging, lays out a plan to further develop the scientific groundwork, human capital, and data and analytic infrastructure to answer critical questions about the U.S. health and longevity crisis. Our overarching objective over the next five years is to strengthen and focus the NLCHDD to generate new evidence and disseminate data and analytic resources to better understand the trends and disparities in U.S. adult health and longevity across the life course and in geographic context. We will do so through four specific aims. First, we will direct attention and resources toward four targeted scientific questions that will shed light on the multi-layered determinants of the troubling trends and growing disparities in U.S. adult health and longevity. These questions (described in detail in the proposal) focus on how state and local contexts?separately and collectively?shape trends and disparities in adult health and longevity across the life course. Second, we will strategically grow the interdisciplinary Network of emerging, established, and underrepresented scientists who will collaborate to investigate the key scientific questions. Third, we will provide development and training opportunities for Network scientists via pilot grants, grant proposal mentoring, working groups, and annual meetings. Fourth, we will develop and disseminate data and analytic resources to foster innovative research on the key scientific questions and advance science in this critical area. Our Network is innovative in its focus on the multi-layered contextual determinants of trends and disparities in adult health and longevity across the life course; in its openness and evolving nature; in its efforts to incorporate emerging investigators with more established ones; and in its central concern for support, mentoring, and development of emerging and underrepresented scholars. This emphasis on human capital development is reflected in all aspects of the Network's organization and operation. Our Network is also unique in its attention to focusing on research that can inform policies and interventions and provide the foundation for future research advances. Finally, our Network is unique in that it will facilitate the expansion, integration, and public dissemination of new and existing databases on population health determinants at state and local contexts. The renewal Network brings together a PI team and four sites that span the U.S. with substantial experience in developing large-scale population health research and complementary scientific strengths connected to the Network?s aims. Using its complementary strengths, developmental maturity, and geographic diversity, the NLCHDD leadership and overall Network is poised to make important scientific inroads over the next five years on the U.S. population health and longevity crisis.
Most measures of U.S. adult health and longevity lag well behind those of other wealthy countries, particularly for U.S. women, middle-aged adults, and areas in the South and Midwest. Explaining this growing U.S. disadvantage necessitates large-scale, coordinated research and data development activities across disciplines. This Network will bring together scientists across disciplines to collectively investigate the U.S. crisis, provide training for Network scientists, and disseminate resources and research to inform decision-makers and improve the health and longevity of the aging population.
| Walsemann, Katrina M; Hummer, Robert A; Hayward, Mark D (2018) Heterogeneity in educational pathways and the health behavior of U.S. young adults. Popul Res Policy Rev 37:343-366 |
| Belsky, Daniel W; Domingue, Benjamin W; Wedow, Robbee et al. (2018) Genetic analysis of social-class mobility in five longitudinal studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:E7275-E7284 |
| Mitchell, Uchechi A; Ailshire, Jennifer A; Crimmins, Eileen M (2018) Change in cardiometabolic risk among blacks, whites and Hispanics: findings from the Health and Retirement Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci : |
| Mitchell, Uchechi A; Ailshire, Jennifer A; Brown, Lauren L et al. (2018) Education and Psychosocial Functioning Among Older Adults: 4-Year Change in Sense of Control and Hopelessness. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 73:849-859 |
| Grol-Prokopczyk, Hanna (2018) Use and Opinions of Prescription Opioids Among Older American Adults: Sociodemographic Predictors. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci : |
| Kim, Jung Ki; Ailshire, Jennifer A; Crimmins, Eileen M (2018) Twenty-year trends in cardiovascular risk among men and women in the United States. Aging Clin Exp Res : |
| Zajacova, Anna; Montez, Jennifer Karas (2018) Explaining the increasing disability prevalence among mid-life US adults, 2002 to 2016. Soc Sci Med 211:1-8 |
| Mitchell, Uchechi A; Aneshensel, Carol S (2017) Social Inequalities in Inflammation: Age Variations in Older Persons. J Aging Health 29:769-787 |
| Elo, Irma T; Mehta, Neil; Preston, Samuel (2017) The Contribution of Weight Status to Black-White Differences in Mortality. Biodemography Soc Biol 63:206-220 |
| Zajacova, Anna; Montez, Jennifer Karas (2017) Physical Functioning Trends among US Women and Men Age 45-64 by Education Level. Biodemography Soc Biol 63:21-30 |
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