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）中期职业研究者奖的续期申请将使候选人有时间继续获得新的研究技能和想法，开发新的研究并指导不同的学员群体。以病人为导向的研究的直接目标是在以下领域扩展她在老年不健康饮酒者中的研究计划： 更简单和/或新颖的方法来解决不同老年人群中的不健康饮酒问题;以及B）探索与酒精相关的风险和因素，以考虑成年艾滋病毒感染者。对于她在导师的直接目标，她希望继续把初级酒精调查人员进入老龄化研究和初级老龄化调查人员进入酒精研究，包括高比例的少数民族和妇女调查人员。这项新的研究将建立在她目前的工作基础上，确定老年不健康饮酒者，并进行干预，以减少与饮酒和合并症相关的风险。这项工作将侧重于新的人口（例如，老年西班牙裔谁是日工，老年人与艾滋病毒），并采用新的招聘和干预方法（例如，与社区组织合作进行，由社区卫生工作者通过邮件和互联网提供，并提供短信支持）。通过正在进行的和拟议的项目，她将了解行为方法，以解决不健康的酒精使用，适应社区卫生工作者，社区参与式研究方法，和西班牙裔日间劳动人口使用的既定行为方法。她还将了解老龄化，艾滋病毒和酒精使用，风险和老年人艾滋病毒合并症的交叉点。她将有完全通过邮件进行干预的经验，也适应基于网络的干预措施，解决不健康的酒精使用，招募参与者，并在老年人中进行在线SBI，有和没有短信支持。所有拟议的项目都有机会接受培训，候选人将继续采用结构化的方法进行辅导，包括针对具体项目的建议和职业建议，以及对其研究的技术和财政支持。从长远来看，该候选人的目标是继续在与酒精和衰老相关的以患者为导向的研究中建立一个备受尊敬的项目，并指导多个学科的研究人员并与他们合作，研究不同人群和不同地点的酒精和衰老问题。在进行这项研究并指导其他人做同样的事情时，她希望增加对老年人不健康饮酒的兴趣和理解，目的是减少与酒精相关的负面影响，改善老年人的功能和生活质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This renewal application for a Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24) will allow the candidate protected time to continue to obtain new research skills and ideas, to develop new research and to mentor a diverse group of trainees. The immediate objectives in patient-oriented research are to extend her program of research in older unhealthy drinkers in the following areas: a) identifying and testing potentially simpler and/or novel ways to address unhealthy drinking among diverse older populations; and b) exploring alcohol-related risks and factors to consider among adults aging with HIV. For her immediate objectives in mentorship, she wishes to continue to bring junior alcohol investigators into aging research and junior aging investigators into alcohol research including high proportions of minority and women investigators. The new research proposed will build on her current work identifying older unhealthy drinkers and intervening to reduce risks associated with alcohol use and comorbidity. This work will focus on new populations (e.g., older Hispanics who are day laborers, and older adults with HIV) and employ new recruitment and intervention approaches (e.g., those conducted in partnership with a community organization and delivered by community health workers, via the mail, and via the internet with text messaging support). Through the ongoing and proposed projects she will learn about behavioral methods to address unhealthy alcohol use, adapting established behavioral methods for use by community health workers, community participatory research methods, and the Hispanic day labor population. She will also learn about the intersection of aging, HIV and alcohol use, risks and comorbidities among older adults with HIV. She will have experience conducting interventions entirely by mail, and also adapting web-based interventions addressing unhealthy alcohol use, recruiting participants and conducting online SBI with and without text messaging support among older adults. Opportunities for trainees are available for all proposed projects and the candidate will continue to use a structured approach to mentoring that includes project-specific and career advice, and technical and financial support for their research. In the long term, the candidate aims to continue to build a well-respected program in patient-oriented research related to alcohol and aging and to mentor and collaborate with investigators from multiple disciplines to study alcohol and aging among diverse populations and in diverse sites. In conducting this research and mentoring others to do the same, she hopes to increase interest in, and understanding of unhealthy alcohol use in older adults, with the aim of reducing alcohol-associated negative consequences and improving function and quality of life in older adults.