Aging Health and Health Services Research Training

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The training grant "Aging Health and Health Services Research" addresses all 4 of the major goals of the NIA Strategic Plan for research, by educating well trained researchers, with multi-disciplinary experience and a broad understanding of the biological, social, health, service and policy aspects of aging with special emphasis placed on trainees becoming highly skilled in the traditional and emerging methodologies for analyzing the highly complex and nested data that characterize the new era of epidemiology. Training Program Specific Aims 1.Recruit high quality doctoral students into aging research; 2.Provide training in substantive topics relevant to health services research in aging; 3.Provide education in epidemiological methods & statistical approaches with applications to aging research; 4.Provide research experiences in ongoing aging related epidemiological and health services research projects; 5.Prepare students for academic and research careers as independent scientists. Description of the Training Program in Aging Health and Health Services Research. The training program builds on the existing graduate programs in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Health Services Research. It represents a combination of courses, seminars, symposia, inter-disciplinary guided study and research experiences with a group of experienced and well-funded investigators doing research on aging and health. The training program builds competencies in the substantive area of aging and the health care delivery system as well as in methodological skills. This is achieved by a combination of course work, seminars, symposia,journal clubs and by exposing students to a rich researchenvironment as trainees participate in faculty members' externally funded research. Training Program Competencies include: 1) aging related issues, from biology to clinical geriatrics to socio- economic factors;2) methods relevant to aging related research. Understanding aging is divided into two segments: 1) the substantive areas of biology, clinical medicine, psychology and sociology of aging; and 2) the system of preventive health and health care services with which the elderly and disabled must interact. Methodological applications in aging research include: 1) ethical and regulatory issues in research conduct; 2) research design and interpretation; and, 3) statistical and analytic techniques particularly the management and manipulation of complex, hierarchical and longitudinal data sets linking administrative and primary data focused on the frail elderly and the health services and poliy environment in which they live. RELEVANCE: We propose to train graduate students in Health Services Research, Epidemiology and Biostatistics in understanding the biological, social, health, service and policy aspects of aging in order to prepare them for careers as independent scientists. We emphasize trainees becoming highly skilled in the traditional and emerging methodologies for analyzing the highly complex and nested data that characterize the new era of social science research and the epidemiology of aging.