Carolyn Aldwin - US grants

The proposed five-year project focusses on the relationship between psychosocial factors and physical health in late life. The project is divided into three parts. Study I is a prospective, longitudinal study examining whether structural psychosocial factors (personality, social integration, and cognition can predict morbidity (hypertension, CHD, and cancer) and mortality from all causes. This study will utilize preexisting data from the Normative Aging Study (NAS), a longitudinal, biomedical study which has been following a panel of 2,280 men for 25 years. This is a particularly advantageous data set for this project, as all men were screened for absence of disease before entry into the study, and because it includes detailed clinical indicators of physical health, along with personality cognitive, and social data. Further, results of the laboratory tests and physician examinations are available to this project at no cost. Using proportional hazards models controlling for standard risk factors, we will determine: (1) whether these psychosocial factors age general risk factors or specific to particular diseases; (2) if there is independence or overlap among different psychosocial predictors of health; and (3) if there are significant interactions between personality and risk factors int he prediction of disease. The second study will examine the relationship between psychosocial process factors (stress and coping) and disease processes (e.g., precursors of overt disease such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels). The major issues to be addressed include: (1) which type of stress (life events, hassles, or perceived/immediate stress) correlates with the disease process measures., (2) and whether there are direct, buffering or no relationships between psychosocial process variables (stress and coping) and disease process variables. Combining data from Studies 1 and 2, the third study will test three hypothesized mechanisms by which psychosocial structural factors can affect physical health outcomes: (a) through direct etiological effects on disease processes; (b) through effects on health behavior habits; and/or (c) through promoting or modifying the effects of stress.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the development of an interdisciplinary, cellular to societal, graduate training program in Aging Sciences at Oregon State University (OSU). The program capitalizes on synergies among scientists at OSU's Center for Healthy Aging Research in the following multidisciplinary research cores: 1) Diet, Genes, and Aging; 2) Musculoskeletal Aging; 3) Psychosocial Aging, and 4) Gerontechnology.

Intellectual Merit: Dramatic increases in longevity have altered the nature of work, family relationships, retirement, health care, and the economy. Maintenance of independence and physical, cognitive, and psychological health in later life depends on understanding and advances in nutrition, exercise, sociocultural factors, assistive technology, and the built environment. Broader Impacts: The IGERT in Aging Sciences trains a new generation of U.S. researchers in cross disciplinary work using state-of-the-art equipment and methods to discover mechanisms that moderate the rate of aging and affect quality of life. Student recruitment from underrepresented groups, attention to diversity, and global education enhance all training aspects. The newly developed Aging Sciences minor will produce effective communicators who can leverage their comprehensive knowledge of aging and foster interdisciplinary collaborations. Structured activities include: participation in research apprenticeships with faculty from two research cores; weekly forums addressing professional development issues and a problem-based yearlong project; participation in the annual LIFE (Linking Individuals, Families, and Environments) Academy, external internships, and opportunities to build mentoring and teaching skills. These programmatic activities position students to make contributions to knowledge of optimal aging through research and to develop innovative products, services, and policies for an aging society.

IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.