The Demography of Aging, Disability and Care program focuses on population aging, disability, and long-term care and related measurement and survey issues.  The program provides leadership for several national studies of late-life disability and care. The program also supports the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA), one of 15 centers funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to advance research on the demography of aging. 

Major Projects

The National Health and Aging Trends Study and National Study of Caregiving

Website:  nhats.org  Bluesky: @nhats-nsoc.bsky.social

Conducted in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) fosters research to guide efforts to reduce disability, maximize health and independent functioning, and enhance quality of life at older ages. NHATS gathers information on a nationally representative sample of more than 8,000 Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older. The sample is refreshed periodically so that researchers may study national-level disability trends as well as individual trajectories. Annual, in-person interviews collect detailed information on the disablement process and its consequences through the end of life. Family and unpaid caregivers of NHATS participants are now interviewed annually in the supplemental National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). The most recent NIA award funds annual collection of NHATS and NSOC through 2028.

Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA)

Website: micda.isr.umich.edu Bluesky: @micda-umisr.bsky.social

Entering its third decade, MiCDA serves as a nexus at the University of Michigan for faculty with a shared interest in the demography of aging.  Housed at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), 70 affiliates from ISR and schools across campus are actively engaged in research in two signature areas: the changing demography of late-life disability, dementia and family caregiving and the social environmental and biological underpinnings over the life course that shape later-life health and wellbeing. A third theme cross cuts the two substantive foci by advancing data infrastructure and methods to promote breakthroughs in the demography of aging. MiCDA’s programs and activities promote new research on the demography of aging by seeding an Emerging Scholars Mentored Pilot Program, leading external networks of scholars addressing pressing scientific and data-related questions, and making data that require secure handling available to approved researchers through a virtual data enclave. 

Health, Wellbeing, and the Social Networks of Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s Disease

This online U.S. panel study, conducted in collaboration with the RAND Corporation with funding from NIA, surveys family caregivers and their networks and ties. Common network typologies and their associations with a variety of measures of physical, mental, and social well-being are examined along with change in caregivers’ social networks and health over the caregiving cycle. This work will help identify the caregiver network characteristics that matter most for caregiver health and well-being outcomes.

Caregiving, Complex Family and Kinship Ties, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD)

This grant (NIA K99/R00) seeks to enhance measurement of family and kinship ties and caregiving norms and behaviors regarding care for older adults in order to better understand under what circumstances complex family and kinship ties become activated and how this process differs for individuals living with dementia. Survey modules have been designed for a RAND online panel, the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging, and the Understanding America Study.

The Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK): A Population study of Health, Wellbeing, Economics, and AD/ADRD in Older Kenyan Adults

This grant (NIA R01), conducted in collaboration with Aga Khan University in Kenya will fund data collection for Wave 1 of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK-Core) and regionally representative LOSHAK Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) to characterize drivers of health and economic wellbeing in later life for older adults in Kenya. These studies will be harmonized with the HRS and HCAP global families of studies. The LOSHAK data will enable a detailed picture of population health and economic wellbeing, providing insights relevant to public policy, economic, and public health planning for academics, government officials, and policymakers in Kenya, across the African continent, and beyond.

Sensory Aging, Late-Life Wellbeing, and ADRD Research Infrastructure to Catalyze Practice and Policy

The goal of this research infrastructure development project (NIA R61/R33) is to substantially strengthen a small but successful collaborative, international network – the SENSE Network – to accelerate and translate innovative research in sensory aging. Objectives of the Network include: strengthening SENSE Network’s coordination of resources, data, and expertise; creating novel integrated and harmonized data resources; generating actionable scientific knowledge through pilot project awards; supporting and guiding research of early-stage investigators; and disseminating and translating new scientific knowledge in this field.