Health Effects of Alcohol and Comorbidity in Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：这项以患者为导向的研究（K24）的中期职业研究者奖将允许候选人通过开发新的重点来继续她的职业发展老年人拉丁美洲饮酒，提高她指导开始临床研究的能力，并进一步了解她的研究，识别和干预，以减少与老年人饮酒相关的风险。她的研究重点是老年人患酒精相关并发症的风险增加，这是基于他们饮酒、医疗和精神状况、症状和药物使用的特定组合（即，危险饮酒）。这项研究的目的是更好地了解患有不同合并症的老年人使用酒精的风险和益处，并预防该人群中与酒精相关的不良后果。该研究计划包括两项正在进行的试验，以测试筛查和简短建议干预的有效性，以减少初级保健环境中老年人的危险饮酒，健康生活随着年龄的增长研究（HLAYA）和项目共享。它还包括两个拟议的试点项目。第一项研究是通过认知和结构化访谈，探索HLAYA筛查和干预方法在洛杉矶老年拉丁美洲人中减少危险饮酒的效用。第二项研究是将药房数据与邮寄的调查数据相结合，以确定服用药物的老年人，这些药物在饮用足量酒精时可能有风险，然后随机分配这些有风险的饮酒者接受邮寄的个性化风险反馈，以确定这种反馈是否会降低他们的风险。候选人将了解饮酒和老年人，包括拉丁美洲人的健康问题，通过进行拟议和正在进行的研究，完成课程，并与3名拉丁美洲健康专家的咨询委员会互动，以及1名酒精和衰老专家和另一名老年人安全用药专家。根据计划的研究和培训，还提出了未来的研究计划。因为这位候选人是一位对拉丁美洲人有新兴趣的老年医学酒精研究人员，她的指导计划将侧重于：a）将老龄化研究人员引入酒精研究; B）将酒精研究人员引入老龄化研究; c）将拉丁美洲研究人员引入老龄化和酒精研究。她将使用结构化的方法来指导学员的具体项目，并为他们的研究提供职业建议和技术和财政支持。在接下来的五年里，候选人的目标是保持全力研究，获得在老年人拉丁美洲饮酒和健康的专业知识和识别和减少危险饮酒的方法，建立在她的指导技能和经验，通过演讲和出版物传播她的研究成果，并帮助培训下一代以患者为导向的调查人员，以推进酒精使用及其在老年人中的风险研究，包括年长的拉丁裔

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24) will allow the candidate to continue her career development by developing a new focus on older Latino drinking, enhancing her ability to mentor beginning clinician investigators, and furthering her research in understanding, identifying and intervening to reduce risks associated with alcohol use in older adults. Her research is focused on the idea that older adults are at increased risk for alcohol-related complications based upon their particular combination of alcohol use, medical and psychiatric conditions, symptoms and medication use (i.e., at-risk drinking). The goal of this research is to better understand the risks and benefits of alcohol use among older adults having differing comorbidites and to prevent adverse alcohol-related outcomes in this population. The research plan includes two ongoing trials to test the effectiveness of a screening and brief advice intervention to reduce at-risk drinking in older adults in primary care settings, the Healthy Living as You Age Study (HLAYA) and Project SHARE. It also includes two proposed pilot projects. The first is a study exploring the utility of the HLAYA screening and intervention method to reduce at-risk drinking in older Latinos in Los Angeles via cognitive and structured interviews. The second is a study in which pharmacy data will be coupled with mailed survey data to identify older adults who take medications that might be risky when consumed with sufficient amounts of alcohol, and then to randomly assign these risky drinkers to receive mailed personalized feedback on their risks to determine if such feedback reduces their risks. The candidate will learn about drinking and health concerns among older persons, including Latinos, by conducting the proposed and ongoing studies, completing coursework, and interacting with an advisory board of 3 experts in Latino health, and 1 expert in alcohol and aging and another expert on safe medication use in older adults. Plans for future research based on the planned research and training are also proposed. Because the candidate is a geriatrician alcohol researcher with a new interest in Latinos, her mentoring plan will focus on bringing a) aging researchers into alcohol; b) alcohol researchers into aging; and c) Latino researchers into both aging and alcohol. She will use a structured approach to mentoring trainees for specific projects, and provide career advice and technical and financial support for their research. Over the next five years, the candidate aims to maintain full effort in research, gain expertise in older Latino drinking and health and methods of identifying and reducing at-risk drinking, build upon her mentoring skills and experience, disseminate her research findings through presentations and publications, and help to train the next generation of patient-oriented investigators to advance research in alcohol use and its risks in older persons, including older Latinos.