Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application to continue the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. The overall objective of this proposed resource center is to foster high quality scholarly and empirical training, research, and interventions focused upon health promotion and health among older racial and ethnic minority populations. This application builds upon the work and expertise of faculty and students in these two state institutions to empirically investigate African American health inequalities over the life-course. We have been fortunate in developing a knowledgeable group of research personnel and attracting to each university a large number of multi-ethnic faculty and graduate students with interests in the study of aging and human development in black and other minority populations. We propose to continue the MCUAAAR as an administrative, training, and scientific research organization among the University of Michigan's Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA) and Life-Course Development (LCD) at the Institute for Social Research, School of Nursing, School of Public Health, the Institute of Gerontology, School of Nursing and Urban Studies Center at Wayne State University, and community based organizations (CBO) in the greater Detroit Metropolitan area. This proposed minority aging resource center builds on other cooperative research and administrative arrangements between UM, WSU and community based organizations. The proposed resource center will contain four interacting components: 1) the Administrative Core will provide administrative support, facilitate intellectual interchange, and provide overall coordination within the proposed Center and with other university units and community health service sites; 2) the Community Liaison Core will strengthen existing community research and service relationships, lead in the research on the "science" of community participant involvement, and provide sources of cooperating community respondents for the proposed pilot research and intervention efforts; 3) the Investigator Development Core will identify, select, and mentor multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural investigators interested in research and interventions on the health of minority elders and support efforts to develop a "science" of mentoring minority investigators; and, 4) the Measurement Core will serve as a training and research focal point and assume leadership in refining and honing the research interests of all the investigators, but especially young investigators conducting pilot studies. Finally, we propose to serve as the RCMAR Coordinating Center and assist in providing intellectual and administrative ties among the selected national group of Resource Centers on Minority Aging Research, the NIA, public and other NIA supported efforts, e.g. Alzheimer's, Shock, Roybal and Pepper Centers. In sum, the proposed MCUAAAR will provide a comprehensive mix of established and new pilot methodologies, a broad scope of proposed culturally sensitive research and intervention activities, and a multi-disciplinary and multi-ethnic team of established researchers and appropriately mentored early investigators. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr. James S. Jackson is a professor and research scientist in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. CORES CORE A: Administrative, Drs. James S. Jackson and Peter Lichenberg DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this request for support of the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) is for continued resources to promote health research on minority elders, particularly African American elders, that will lead to health promotion and the reduction and elimination of health disparities as called for in Healthy People 2010 through several approaches consistent with the NIA's 2000-2005 Strategic Plan. Examples of MCUAAAR's efforts include continued development of its successful mentoring program focused on building a network of minority investigators who are committed to becoming productive scholars in the area of health and aging. Health promotion and the reduction and elimination of health disparities is only possible with the effective recruitment and retention of African American and other minority elders in health research. We will continue to build upon our productive research program in this area and continue to reach out to seniors in the city of Detroit with the explicit purpose of building upon our developed databases of individuals who have agreed to be contacted for health research purposes. We have demonstrated our ability to form productive, collaborative relationships over the prior five-year period and will continue and extend our collaborations in this grant period with NIA Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers, NIA Claude Pepper Centers for Independence, the Population Studies Center and the NACDA at the Institute for Social Research. During the last five year period we have joined with a wide set of relevant NIA Centers, university, and community organizations at our two main institutions and in the region, as well as at select institutions around the country. Building on the strengths at the University of Michigan (UM) and Wayne State University (WSU), our specific set of related loci will be research on health and health promotion with a special emphasis on our relative research strengths in cognitive functioning and dysfunction, cognitive appraisal, and perception as they relate to a wide range of health outcomes and disorders, the promotion of independence, and the understanding of how demographic and social changes relate to health disparities and their elimination among older African Americans and other minority populations.