Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application to continue the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR) at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Conceptually, the research and training activities of the proposed center build upon a social and behavioral science model of health promotion and health behaviors that emphasize the intersection of structural statuses (especially socio- economic), gender, and race/ethnicity in influencing health outcomes. It is life-course oriented and assumes that statuses and conditions in older ages among ethnic and racial minorities begin at earlier periods of the life-course and are amenable to culturally sensitive and appropriate interventions. The model grows out of our research on productive roles among the elderly and focuses attention on elements of effective aging that are culturally relevant and efficacious in influencing positive health and functioning outcomes. The proposed MCUAAAR would be organized into three cores. The Administrative Core will provide administrative support, facilitate intellectual interchange, and provide overall coordination within the proposed Center, and with other university units and community based organizations. The Community Liaison Core will work with existing, and build new, community research and service relationships, provide sources of cooperating community respondents for the proposed pilot research and intervention efforts, and develop a new public policy outreach initiative. The Investigator Development Core will identify, select, and mentor multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural investigators interested in research and interventions on the health of minority elders. Although a separate measurement core is not proposed, investigators skilled in measurement and methodology will work within the Administrative Core to refine and hone the research interests of all the investigators, but especially young scholars conducting the pilot studies. This application builds upon the work and expertise of faculty and students in these two state institutions to empirically investigate African American health inequalities over the life-course. We have been fortunate in developing a knowledgeable group of research personnel and attracting to each university a large number of multi-ethnic core and affiliated faculty, many of them former MCUAAAR Scholars, and graduate students with interests in the study of aging and human development in black and other minority populations. The MCUAAAR will continue to support a multi- disciplinary and multi-ethnic team of established researchers and appropriately mentored early investigators. We are committed to building and maintaining research infra-structures for mentoring new minority researchers, enhancing the diversity of future social and behavioral science aging researchers, and improving current, and developing new, strategies for recruiting and retaining older minority participants in health related research among the growing diverse elderly populations.