Aging-Related Biodemography of Life Course Physiology and Environmental Modifiers

描述(申请人提供)：新的综合生物人口学和老年学框架，对疾病和老年条件的病因学更好的了解，以及微创标本采集技术的进步，正在导致将越来越广泛的生物标记物纳入人口研究。这项职业奖将利用这些进展来检查相互作用的生理(例如，器官)系统的调节方面的损害。从理论上讲，这种损害反映了对社会和身体挑战的适应能力下降。我们假设，1)生理系统之间调节受损的临界量会加速虚弱、残疾和死亡的风险；2)在长期受到高水平环境挑战的人中，生理系统之间的调节受损以及脆弱、残疾和死亡往往出现在生命过程的更早阶段；3)观察到的预期寿命的增加代表了健康状况改善的长期趋势，与较老的出生队列相比，较新出生的队列中生理系统和结果之间的调节受损的时间较晚，而且与白人相比，这种延迟在那些面临更多挑战、社会经济地位较低的美国人以及来自代表性较低的少数族裔群体的美国人中将较少。我将使用来自五个主要人口研究的数据，并通过三个步骤实现我的目标，这三个步骤构成了我的目标。这些步骤是确定：调节障碍何时以及如何出现，它如何与潜在的后遗症相关联，以及脆弱亚群之间的差异(目标1)；生理调节受损是否受到环境挑战的影响(目标2)；以及个人和环境因素如何共同影响美国老年人的健康和功能，无论是个人还是在人口层面(目标3)。在获奖期间，我将获得关于老年人面临的物理环境挑战、先进的统计方法以及生物、临床和实验室内容的专门培训。这项培训将使我能够继续发展成为一名独立研究人员，重点是了解社区老年人中将社会和身体挑战与健康联系起来的生物学途径，以及这些途径对人口健康变化的意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): New integrative biodemographic and gerontological frameworks, a better etiologic understanding of both disease and geriatric conditions, and technological advances in minimally-invasive specimen collection are resulting in the incorporation of increasingly broad arrays of biological markers into population research. This career award will draw on these advances to examine impairment in the regulation of interacting physiologic (e.g., organ) systems. Such impairment is theorized to reflect decreased resilience to social and physical challenges. We hypothesize that 1) reaching a critical mass of impaired regulation among physiologic systems accelerates the risk of frailty, disability, and mortality; 2) that impaired regulation among physiologic systems, as well as frailty, disability and mortality, tend to emerge earlier in the life course in persons who are chronically subjected to high levels of environmental challenge; and 3) that observed increases in life expectancy represent secular trends in improved health and later onset of impaired regulation among physiologic systems and outcomes in more recent birth cohorts, relative to older birth cohorts, and that this delay will be less in those with greater exposure to challenges, lower socioeconomic status, and Americans from underrepresented minority groups compared to white Americans. I will use data from five major population-based studies and achieve my goal in three steps that comprise my aims. The steps are to determine: when and how impairment in regulation emerges, how it is associated with potential sequelae, and variations across vulnerable subgroups (Aim 1); whether impaired physiologic regulation is affected by challenges in the environment (Aim 2); and how individual and environmental factors jointly shape the health and function of older adults in the U.S., both individually and at the population level (Aim 3). During the award period I will obtain specialized training in physical environment challenges facing older adults, advanced statistical methods, and biological, clinical, and laboratory content. This training will enable me to continue my development into an independent researcher focused on understanding the biological pathways that link social and physical challenges to health among community-dwelling older adults, and the significance of these pathways for changes in population health.