Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Aging

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the application): This application is for a 5-year renewal of an institutional training grant in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Aging, funded by NIA since 1996. The goals of this program are to continue to attract outstanding predoctoral and postdoctoral candidates to lead the next generation of quantitative research scientists addressing the health problems of our aging population. This program is conducted jointly by epidemiologists and biostatisticians with strong commitment to aging research, bringing together students in both disciplines to develop expertise in both the critically important content areas and methodologies essential to the further development of the field. The students are trained as researchers who can conduct leading-edge descriptive, analytic and experimental studies and develop, implement and evaluate prevention programs that compress the morbidity experience of the aging population. The program is based in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, but involves faculty from other departments throughout the Schools of Hygiene and Public Health, Medicine, and Nursing. A Program Director and 3 Co-Directors from the two Departments, and 11 other core faculty will serve as Advisors for the trainees. There is a core curriculum expected of all predoctoral trainees, and customized to postdoctoral trainees, depending on their prior training. All trainees participate in biweekly research in progress conferences, seminars on aging, and practica specific to this program. Research experiences and mentors are carefully selected to ensure high quality research worthy of peer-reviewed publication in the areas of aging research. We would continue to train students in basic epidemiologic and biostatistical methods, and their application to important questions in the health status of older adults, including causes and consequences of chronic diseases, comorbidity, and disability in older adults. Students develop expertise in design and conduct of large-scale prospective studies; both observational and clinical trials; longitudinal data analysis; and health services for an aging population. We have expanded the original emphases of the program to include study of the molecular causes of age-related changes; the phenotype, consequences and etiology of frailty, including neuromuscular, inflammatory and hormonal etiologies; and the social epidemiology of aging. Graduates will be effective leaders of multidisciplinary research teams tracking the health problems associated with the aging US population.