The purpose of this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is to provide the candidate, a newly graduated medical sociologist, with additional training and research experience that will enable her to pursue an academic career in aging with a focus on eating behaviors in homebound older adults. In order to fully understand and investigate the many factors that influence eating behaviors and health outcomes, and to design appropriate interventions to improve nutritional status in frail, homebound older adults, the candidate will need to acquire specialized knowledge and skills. She proposes a career development plan that consists of coursework, training, and research experiences with a mentoring/ consulting team of senior faculty and external mentors with expertise in the areas of nutrition, public health, and advanced statistics. The research program consists of a pilot study using a longitudinal design with consecutive waves of data collection. The first goal of the study is to examine the maintenance or modification of eating behaviors in older homebound adults who are experiencing an acute illness or chronic medical conditions, and factors associated with the maintenance or modification of those eating behaviors. The second goal of the study is to examine the direct and mediating effects of these eating behaviors on nutrition-related patient-based health outcomes. This research focuses on self-care eating behaviors adopted by frail older persons who are homebound because of acute or chronic health conditions, the stability and change of these behaviors over time, and the impact of these eating behaviors on health outcomes. This study will provide information that can be used to develop interventions and the preliminary data needed to design a larger-scale clinical intervention trial to test the effects of these interventions for improving the nutritional health of older homebound adults.
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