Aging in Precarious Place: Building Resilience Among Older Adults Living in Environmentally Vulnerable Areas

项目总结 飓风、洪水、热浪和野火等严重灾害，以及逐渐发生的环境问题 海平面上升和海岸侵蚀等事件的发生频率和严重性都在不断增加。这些事件 由于慢性健康状况，对老年人(65岁)的健康和福祉造成不成比例的影响， 认知能力有限，社交网络枯竭。在所有年龄段中，老年人最不可能发生 为灾害做好准备，在灾害的所有阶段(例如，减灾、备灾)风险最大； 反应；恢复)，而且，它们与灾害相关的死亡率最高。除了增加 老年人的发病率和死亡率，灾害暴露也会扰乱社区居住的能力 老年人要成功变老。尽管它们很脆弱，但抗灾干预措施和活动 通常不是为社区老年人量身定做的。快速增长的老年人口-以及 不断增加的灾难风险--使我们有必要了解影响老年人的因素 灾害背景下的复原力(例如，灾难复原力)以及如何培育这一适应进程 促进成功衰老(SA)。这个职业发展奖的主要研究目标是 生成数据，为候选人领导的未来R级奖励提供信息，解决复原力建设问题 在灾害风险不断增加的情况下，推广SA的战略。这项拟议的研究旨在促进成功 通过确定提高社区老年人抗灾能力的因素来实现老龄化，以及 随后，利用这些因素为那些在灾难中老龄化的人设计和试行干预措施- 易发地区。我们假设灾难暴露和SA之间的直接关系可以通过 增强了抗灾能力。为了检验这个假设，这个项目的主要目标是(1)检验一个概念性的 将灾害暴露、个体抗灾能力和SA之间的关系理论化的模型；(2) 使用定性数据确定影响老年人抗灾能力的因素；以及(3)设计 并试行代际干预措施，旨在提高社区居民的抗灾能力 上了年纪的人。CDA的主要培训目标是为PI提供(1)高级量化技能 方法；(2)干预学。指导团队包括一个特殊的多学科小组， 在干预设计和实施方面有专长的学者；社会老年学；公共卫生灾难 科学；复原力理论；生物统计学。为了实现这些目标，PI和指导团队共同- 设计了一项培训计划，包括指导性、指导性和体验式学习，将为PI提供 有专门的时间专注于研究、研究结果的传播和试点数据的收集，为未来提供信息 研究。在她的资深研究人员团队的指导下，额外的课程作业和申请 经验，PI将能够过渡到一个成功的独立研究人员，可以有效地沟通 老年学、公共卫生灾害学和干预学。

PROJECT SUMMARY Acute disasters like hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires, as well as gradual-onset environmental events like sea level rise and coastal erosion, are growing in frequency and severity. These events disproportionately affect the health and well-being of older adults (65+) due to chronic health conditions, cognitive limitations, and depleted social networks. Across all age groups, older adults are the least likely to be prepared for disasters, are the most at-risk during all phases of a disaster (e.g., mitigation, preparedness; response; recovery) and, they have the highest rate of disaster-related deaths. In addition to increasing the morbidity and mortality of older adults, disaster exposure can also disrupt the ability of community-dwelling older adults to successfully age. Despite their vulnerability, disaster resilience interventions and activities are not usually tailored for community-dwelling older adults. The rapidly growing older adult population—along with the mounting risk of disasters—makes it imperative to understand the factors that influence older adult resilience in the context of disasters (e.g., disaster resilience) and how this adaptive process can be nurtured to promote successful aging (SA). The main research objective of this career development award is to generate data that will inform future R-level awards, led by the candidate, that address resilience-building strategies to promote SA, despite growing disaster risk. This proposed research aims to promote successful aging by identifying the factors that increase the disaster resilience of community-dwelling older adults, and subsequently leveraging these factors in the design and piloting of an intervention for those aging in disaster- prone areas. We hypothesize that a direct relationship between disaster exposure and SA can be mediated by increased disaster resilience. To test this hypothesis, the broad goals of this project are to (1) test a conceptual model that theorizes the relationship among disaster exposure, individual disaster resilience and SA; (2) identify the factors that contribute to disaster resilience among older adults with qualitative data; and (3) design and pilot an intergenerational intervention that aims to increase disaster resilience among community-dwelling older adults. The main training objective of this CDA is to provide the PI with skills in (1) advanced quantitative methods; and (2) intervention science. The mentoring team includes an exceptional multidisciplinary group of scholars with expertise in intervention design and implementation; social gerontology; public health disaster science; resilience theory; and biostatistics. To accomplish these goals, the PI and mentoring team have co- designed a training plan with didactic, mentored, and experiential learning that will provide the PI with dedicated time to focus on research, dissemination of findings, and the collection of pilot data to inform future research. With mentorship from her team of senior researchers, additional coursework, and applied experience, the PI will be able to transition into a successful independent researcher who can effectively bridge gerontology, public health disaster science, and intervention science.