The overall aim of this P30 proposal to the National Institute of Aging is to enhance the capability of the University of Chicago to perform research on how the social context of older persons - whether personal socioeconomic and health factors, family, or neighborhood/community factors - and the health care system interact to produce health outcomes for older persons. We have chosen this focus because we believe these are many important questions for the United States at this concern these interactions, and because our senior faculty mentors in aging are extremely well situated to mentor junior faculty to address these questions.

To accomplish this overall aim, we propose the following specific aims:

1. To establish a Core Center for interdisciplinary research within the Center for Health and the Social Sciences (CHeSS) examining how social context and the health care system interact to affect health care outcomes for older persons.

2. To recruit four new faculty members at the assistant professor level, using initial salary support and startup packages both to enable these recruitments and to attract exceptionally strong junior faculty.

3. To use mentoring and seed grant resources to promote professional development of these junior faculty members.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Over the next decades, the aging of the U.S. population will present challenges for the health care system. Many of these challenges will be strongly influenced by social factors relevant to older persons. The proposed project will enhance the University's capacity for transdisciplinary research on aging that examines how social context and the health care system interact to produce health outcomes for older persons.

P30AG036459

2009-09-30

2012-08-31