Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：对生命历程决定因素的科学发现和对导致健康相关变化和加速衰老的人体内过程的理解是国际上的主要研究重点。老龄化研究需要一个综合的生命历程发展框架，涉及跨学科合作和先进的方法方法，以理解个体如何以及为什么随着年龄的增长而变化，包括规范和特殊的方式。然而，纵向研究可能会带来显著的挑战。结果的复制和比较必须考虑样本中个体的年龄范围、出生队列、文化、健康和教育、测量、设计和统计分析的差异，以及诸如反应率、损失率和死亡率选择等问题。此外，对生命历程过程的理解是在国际和历史背景下进行的，考虑到国家、文化和历史差异，这对于评估特定研究结果的可重复性和普遍性是必要的。该应用程序的一个重要功能是进一步开发、维护和利用国际纵向研究的协调分析基础设施，以推进有关老龄化相关变化和这些变化的生命过程决定因素的知识。整个项目的目标是：1)通过创建一个专门的研究平台来汇总和组织与研究和测量相关的元数据，促进老龄化纵向研究的协作、协调和汇总数据分析；2)评估慢性健康状况和健康相关生物标志物对认知和身体功能衰老相关变化的影响；3)在主要的老龄化纵向研究中，评估不同人格和幸福感结构在老龄化、健康和死亡相关变化方面的总体平均和个体差异的一般模式；4)评估早期生活特征和社会决定因素在认知和健康衰老相关变化中的作用，重点是差异风险和暴露过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The scientific discovery of life course determinants and understanding of within-person processes leading to health-related changes and accelerated aging is a major research priority internationally. The study of aging demands an integrative life course developmental framework, involving interdisciplinary collaborations and advanced methodological approaches for understanding how and why individuals change with age, in both normative and idiosyncratic ways. However, longitudinal research can present remarkable challenges. Replication and comparison of results must include consideration of the age range, birth cohort, culture, health and education of individuals in the sample, differences in measurements, design and statistical analysis, and issues such as rates of response, attrition, and mortality selection. In addition, an understanding of life course processes is embedded within an international and historical context, with consideration of country, culture, and historical differences necessary for evaluating reproducibility and generalizability of particular study findings. A vital function of this application is to further develop, maintain, and make use f an infrastructure for coordinated analysis of international longitudinal studies for advancing knowledge about aging-related change and life course determinants of such changes. The aims of the overall program project are: 1) To facilitate collaborative, coordinated, and pooled-data analysis of longitudinal studies of aging through the creation of a purpose-built research platform for aggregating and organizing metadata related to study and measurements; 2) To evaluate the impact of chronic health conditions and health-related biomarkers on aging-related change in cognitive and physical functioning; 3) To evaluate general patterns of population average and individual variation in aging, health, and mortality related change across distinct personality and well-being constructs in major longitudinal studies on aging; and 4) To evaluate the role of early life characteristics and social determinants ion aging-related change in cognition and health, with emphasis on differential risk and exposure processes.