Dr. Hicken studies the social causes and biological mechanisms linking racial group membership to renal and cardiovascular disease inequalities. Her research examines the interrelated roles of racial residential segregation, neighborhood disadvantage, environmental hazards, and racial health inequalities in adult populations, including older adults.
Dr. Patterson’s research addresses whether and how social norms and family composition influence caregiving behaviors and wellbeing for family members. She has also studied the role of complex families and kinlessness in the lives of older adults.
Dr. Hu’s current research interests include the identification and reduction of measurement errors in cross-cultural surveys, survey non-response, longitudinal survey data analysis, and methodological issues that arise in survey research with older populations. Dr. Hu is a Co-Investigator on the National Health and Aging Trends Study and the National Study of Caregiving and works with the team to enhance user outreach and evaluate new data collection designs.
Dr. Ehrlich is a clinician-scientist whose research on vision impairment cross-cuts population health and health services research. He conducts research on low vision and vision rehabilitation; aging and vision; and the epidemiology of eye disease. As a co-investigator on the National Health and Aging Trends Study, he has collaborated on the design of a set of vision tests for use by interviewers in the home. He is also one of the PIs of the Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK) project. He currently serves as Associate Director of MiCDA’s Network Core.
Dr. Ware conducts high throughput statistical analysis of genomic data to study disparities by in psychiatric outcomes by race and sex. She also explores gene-environment interactions as determinants of chronic disease.
Dr. Freedman has published extensively on the topics of population aging, disability trends and long-term care and has investigated the connections among disability, time use and wellbeing in later life. She has co-led the National Health and Aging Trends Study and the National Study of Caregiving since their inception and has served as an Associate Director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Through these efforts she has been instrumental in disseminating new measures to study disability and care needs of older adults.