Aging Health and Health Services Research Training

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的“老龄化健康与卫生服务研究”培训计划旨在培训未来的研究人员，将流行病学和生物统计学方法整合到卫生服务研究中，并应用于老龄化。在过去十年中，由于遗传学、临床、流行病学和保健服务数据的爆炸式增长，调查人员可以获得老年学知识库的重大进展，从而有可能解决旨在增进我们对人们如何变老、适应老龄化以及社会因素和保健服务可得性在这一过程中所起作用的理解的研究问题。国家研究所

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed training program in "Aging Health and Health Services Research" seeks to train future investigators in the integration of Epidemiological and Biostatistics methods into Health Services Research with applications in aging. Over the last decade major advances in the knowledge base of gerontology have been occurring thanks to an explosion of genetic, clinical, epidemiological and health services data that have become available to investigators, making it possible to address research questions designed to increase our understanding of how people age, adjust to aging and the role that social factors and the availability of health services play in that process. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has been at the forefront of making these kinds of data available to investigators, whenever possible, linking multiple types of data together. Researchers of the future must know how to maximize the use of these data sources. Thus, in the future there will be a premium placed on young investigators cognizant of methodological advances ranging from new strategies for collecting, merging and managing data sets; new and refined statistics and analytic strategies; and major new tools for integrating social, health and biological data. The proposed renewal of our training program addresses 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. These researchers will be highly skilled in traditional and emerging methodologies for analyzing the complex, nested data that characterize the new era of epidemiology. Building upon a rich research and training environment with over two decades of experience training investigators focused on understanding how the aged use and are affected by health services, this competing renewal application will: 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 and statistical methods with applications to aging research; 4) provide research experiences in ongoing health services research projects related to aging and chronic diseases; and 5) prepare students for research careers as independent scientists and leaders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Building upon a rich, interdisciplinary research environment with numerous NIA funded investigators, this training grant proposal seeks to support the training of pre-doctoral trainees in Epidemiology, Health Services Research and Biostatistics with a focus on Aging and Health Services in order to meet the growing demand for investigators conducting research on the biological, psychological and social forces that shape the manner in which older Americans utilize health services and how those services affect their health and well-being.