Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have been selected to lead a new national survey of older Americans to understand patterns of disability and aging.
The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is expected to award approximately $24 million over the next five years to develop and implement the new survey. The study will include investigators from the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Brown University, Columbia University, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Urban Institute, the University of Iowa, Syracuse University and the survey research firm, Westat.
“Our aim is to provide scientific evidence that can help in reducing disability and improving the daily lives of older people,” said Judy Kasper, PhD, principal investigator of the study and professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “We will assemble a rich database of information that will allow researchers to study how people’s ability to function independently changes over time, as well as examine the factors that influence those changes, such as social environment and medical care.”
The study also is designed to provide trend data on disability comparable to the 1982-2004 National Long-Term Care Survey that showed a major decline in disability among people 65 and older, beginning around 1984.