Neighborhood Context, Social Relationships, and Health: Examining the Pathways

项目摘要 这个独立之路奖的主要目的是提供必要的培训和研究， 经验，以促进PI的过渡到一个独立的研究生涯在健康和老龄化领域。的 PI是一位训练有素的社会学家和人口统计学家，正在寻求生物学和心理学方面的额外培训。 南加州大学的安德罗斯老年学中心是一个杰出的研究机构，致力于 对衰老的研究。PI将继续开展培训和研究计划，以增加必要的知识， 衰老的生物学和心理学模型与PI目前在人口健康研究方面的专业知识相结合。 该奖项的目的是扩大现有的知识，社会环境如何“进入皮肤下” 并通过阐明邻里环境和心理之间的复杂联系来影响健康， 非社会因素及其对整个生命过程中健康的影响。了解如何在这样的经验- 社会环境转化为健康风险，然而，需要澄清的生物和心理- 将社会环境与健康联系起来的社会过程。社区参与（例如， 与邻居的关系和参与社区组织）可能是一个关键，但研究不足， 社区影响老年人健康的途径。 拟议中的研究探讨了邻里社会和物理环境之间的联系，所以- 社会参与和多系统生理功能的生物标志物，目的是获得 关于邻里环境影响健康的具体途径的新知识 在居民中，特别是老年居民中发挥作用。这项建议意义重大，因为 社区在塑造健康和福祉方面发挥着至关重要的作用，特别是在老年人中，他们可能- 更多地依赖于邻近地区的资源和设施， 以及对邻里危害的脆弱性。然而，将社区与健康联系起来的途径 老年人不太了解。该项目的目标是：1）确定心理社会途径的联系- 2）测试个人与邻里之间的相互作用 关于其对心理社会功能和生理失调的影响的特征;以及3） 确定邻居的变化是否预示着个体心理社会功能和生理疾病的变化， 调节。该项目将促进对老龄化前的复杂，多层次的决定因素的理解， 经历 研究目标将通过二级数据分析程序与几个前， 基于人口的数据集（芝加哥社区成人健康研究，健康和退休研究， 美国中年发展全国调查），所有这些都整合了关于邻里关系的信息， 文本、心理社会因素和生物标志物。广义线性模型与多水平方法的结合 将用于进行具体目标中概述的分析。需要了解活检的技能- chosocial过程链接邻里和社会参与健康，这是必要的，这是重新 搜索，将作为K99指导计划的关键组成部分获得。候选人将利用广泛的 整个南加州大学的资源和培训机会的范围- tology中心和其他地方，以获得必要的技能，追求研究事业，整合多， 水平的信息，社区，心理社会因素，生物疾病的过程，到现有的重建， 健康和老龄化研究中的搜索模型，传统上完全集中在个人层面的因素。 R 00阶段将允许候选人在以下指导下完成研究计划所需的时间： 候选人的K99导师，并提交R 01提案，以检查如何邻里环境 和社会关系联合收割机并相互作用，以塑造生命过程中的健康轨迹。

PROJECT ABSTRACT This primary aim of this Pathway to Independence Award is to provide necessary training and research ex- perience to facilitate the PI's transition to an independent research career in the field of health and aging. The PI is a highly training sociologist and demographer seeking additional training in biology and psychology at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California, a preeminent research institute devoted to the study of aging. The PI will pursue a program of training and research that will add necessary knowledge of biological and psychological models of aging to the PI's current expertise in demographic health research. The objective of this award is to extend existing knowledge of how social environments `get under the skin' and influence health by elucidating the complex associations between the neighborhood environment and psy- chosocial factors and their effects on health across the life course. Understanding how experiences in the so- cial environment are translated into health risks, however, requires clarification of the biological and psychoso- cial processes that link social environments to health. Neighborhood-based social engagement (e.g. interac- tions with neighbors and participation in community organization) may represent a key, yet understudied, pathway through which neighborhoods influence older adult health. The proposed research examines the links among the neighborhood social and physical environment, so- cial engagement, and biological markers of multi-system physiological functioning with the objective of gaining new knowledge about the specific pathways through which the neighborhood environment influences health and functioning among residents, and in particular, older residents. The proposal is highly significant because communities play a vital role in shaping health and well-being, particularly among older adults who may be- come more dependent on the resources and amenities in their immediate neighborhood and have greater ex- posure and vulnerability to neighborhood hazards. Yet, the pathways linking neighborhoods to health among older adults are not well understood. The aims of this project are to: 1) identify the psychosocial pathways link- ing neighborhoods to physiolgocial dysregulation; 2) test for interactions between individual and neighborhood characteristics with respect to their effects on psychosocial functioning and physiological dysregulation; and 3) determine if neighborhood change predicts change in individual psychosocial functioning and physiological dy- sregulation. This project will advance understanding of the complex, multilevel determinants of the aging ex- perience. The research objectives will be investigated through a program of secondary data analysis with several ex- isting population-based data sets (Chicago Community Adult Health Study, Health and Retirement Study, and National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.S.), all of which integrate information on neighborhood con- text, psychosocial factors, and biomarkers. A combination of generalized linear models and multilevel methods will be used to conduct the analyses outlined in the specific aims. The skills needed to understand how biopsy- chosocial processes link neighborhoods and social engagement to health, which are necessary for this re- search, will be obtained as a key component of the K99 mentoring plan. The candidate will draw on a broad range of resources and training opportunities throughout the University of Southern California Andrus Geron- tology Center and elsewhere to obtain the necessary skills to pursue a research career that integrates multi- level information on neighborhoods, psychosocial factors, and biological disease processes into existing re- search models in health and aging research that have traditionally focused entirely on individual-level factors. The R00 phase will allow the candidate the time needed to complete the research plan under the guidance of the candidate's K99 mentors, and to submit an R01 proposal to examine how the neighborhood environment and social relationships combine and interact to shape health trajectories over the life course.