The proposed Teaching Nursing Home will be organized and integrated by a common focus on chronic conditions of the elderly, whose etiology or prevention is not well known, whose progression is irreversible, and whose effects include significant functional or cognitive impairment, leading to long-term dependence on family care-givers or institutional care. Researchers from the Colleges of Medicine and Nursing and from the Iowa State Veterans Home will be brought together to address various aspects of this central theme, emphasizing epidemiological approaches to etiology and disease progression and emphasizing social psychological approaches to impairment and the effects of dependence. The TNH will initially consist of five R01 substudies including: a case control study of factors related to Parkinson's disease, a study of risk factors for osteoporosis, an experiment to assess the effects of special care strategies for institutionalized SDAT patients, a longitudinal study of the interacting effects of stress and social support on family care-givers of SDAT patients, and a study of cognitive decline in mildly retarded elderly. The TNH will also have a central Core Unit, which will coordinate and peer-review the substudies and provide them with centralized data processing, interviewing and statistical consulting services. However, the primary purpose of the Core is to plan, stimulate, and assist in development of new research efforts and, ultimately, to develop a campus-wide research emphasis on the TNH focal theme.
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