Emerging Issues in Minority Aging Research

描述(申请人提供)：少数民族老龄化研究中的新问题：这个项目将创建五个不同的为期一天的会议，讨论当前的NIA倡议，这些都是相关的 少数族裔老龄化研究。拟议的会议系列的目标是通过向初级和高级研究人员提供新的知识和对适用于少数族裔老年人的这些新问题的更大兴趣，来提高NIA资助的研究的质量、数量和与有色人种社区的相关性。这一点意义重大，因为来自种族和少数族裔社区的美国老年人口的数量和比例正在迅速增长：2010至2050年间，少数族裔占老年人口的比例将从20%增加到40%以上。保护和改善这些老年人的健康需要一支在这一领域具有兴趣和能力的高技能研究队伍，以产生新的有用的知识。然而，由美国国立卫生研究院资助的少数族裔研究人员的数量和成功程度是不够的。NIA的少数民族老龄化研究资源中心(RCMAR)计划致力于指导和培训从事少数民族老龄化研究的初级教员，以加强NIA资助的下一代少数民族和少数族裔研究人员。会议将集中讨论：认知健康差异研究和国家政策，少数群体老龄化研究和政策分析中幸福感测量的使用，少数群体老龄化研究中的污名，不同人群中风险因素的突变和可逆性，以及少数群体老龄化研究的压力和韧性的概念和衡量标准。每一次都将有这一主题的领先学者，少数族裔老龄化方面的顶尖学者，以及来自NIA资助的多个中心和网络的代表。这些方案将传播关于这一主题的最新技术，告知研究人员如何修改或扩大现有研究，使其对少数族裔老年人更有效和更相关，并提供可供研究人员用来进一步发展与少数族裔老年人研究领域的工具。这些会议将作为美国老年学会(GSA)年度科学会议的预备会议举行。每一次会议将至少有50名与会者，其中大多数是少数群体和/或妇女。计划委员会将由该领域的领军人物、来自RCMAR网站的具有该主题专业知识的研究人员以及NIA资助的其他网络的成员组成。执行委员会将是RCMAR董事小组。该项目在所涵盖的主题、涉及的研究网络以及与GSA的协同作用方面具有创新性。计划评估包括过程评估、事前/事后的回溯性知识和信心调查，以及为期四个月的会议影响跟踪调查。牵头调查人员是少数民族老龄化和老年学教育方面的国家领导者，他们成功地领导了之前11次GSA预会议，接触到了600多名研究人员。这项建议是对之前成功系列的更新，具有新的主题，但目标相似，即提高RCMAR学者和教职员工以及其他具有少数群体老龄化和相关问题研究议程的人对NIA支持的新兴问题的知识和兴趣；并提高对少数群体老龄化问题如何与这些优先主题交叉的认识，以促进对前沿问题的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Emerging Issues in Minority Aging Research: This project will create five different one-day conferences on current NIA initiatives that are relevant to minority aging research. The goal of the proposed conference series is to increase the quality, quantity, and relevance to communities of color of NIA-fundable research by providing both junior and senior researchers with new knowledge and greater interest in these emerging issues as they apply to minority elderly. This is significant because the number and proportion of the U.S. older population from racial and ethnic minority communities is growing rapidly: minorities will increase from 20% to over 40% of the older population between 2010 and 2050. Protecting and improving the health of these elderly requires a highly skilled research workforce with interests and capabilities in this area to produce new and useful knowledge. Yet the number and success of minority researchers funded by NIH is insufficient. The NIA's Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) program works to mentor and train junior faculty who conduct research on minority aging to strengthen the next generation of NIA-funded ethnic and racial minority researchers. The conferences will focus on: Cognitive health disparities research and national policy, Use of well-being measures in minority aging research and policy analyses, Stigma in minority aging research, Mutability and reversibility of risk factors across diverse populations, and Concepts and measures of stress and resilience for minority aging research. Each will feature leading scholars on the topic, top scholars on minority aging, and representatives from multiple NIA-funded centers and networks. The programs will disseminate the state of the art on the topic, inform researchers on how existing research needs to be modified or expanded to be more valid and relevant for minority elders, and provide tools that can be used by researchers to further develop the fields in research with minority elders. The conferences will be held as preconferences to the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) annual scientific meetings. There will be at least 50 participants at each conference and the majority will be minorities and/or women. The planning committee will be compromised of the confirmed keynote speakers who are leaders in the field, researchers from RCMAR sites with expertise in the topic, and members of other NIA-funded networks. The executive committee will be the RCMAR directors group. The project is innovative in the topics covered, the research networks involved, and the synergy with GSA. Program evaluation includes a process evaluation, a retrospective pre/post knowledge and confidence survey, and four-month follow-up survey on conference impacts. The lead investigators are national leaders in minority aging and gerontological education who have successfully led 11 previous GSA preconferences that reached over 600 researchers. This proposal is a renewal of the previous successful series with new topics but similar objectives of improving the knowledge and interest in emerging issues supported by NIA among RCMAR Scholars and faculty as well as among others with research agendas in minority aging and related issues; and raising awareness of how minority aging issues intersect these priority topics to promote research in the cutting edge issues.