This pilot project will examine unmet care needs across time and related well-being outcomes for older adults among three at-risk groups – the kinless (no partner or children), the distanced (no partner or children nearby), and the disconnected (partner and children are disengaged). Analyses will draw upon the 2015-2019 National Health and Aging Trends Study, a panel study of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older.
Documenting changes related to the pandemic in long-term services and supports and family care is crucial in understanding the immediate impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable older adults and for establishing a nationally representative baseline to study longer-run effects. This pilot project will use data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the effect of the COVID-19 on long-term services and supports and care decisions among older adults who need help with at least two activities of daily living (ADLs) or with probable dementia (high need older adults).
Paid family leave laws have the potential to alter older adults’ allocation of time spent in work and caregiving, which can in turn affect their own physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. In 2004, California became the first state to require that employers provide paid family leave to their employees. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, this pilot project examines changes in older adults’ time spent in work and caregiving before and after California’s 2004 paid family leave law.
This pilot study will test the central hypothesis that vision impairments is a “second hit” that potentiates the risk of cognitive decline and dementia among those that carry the APOE ε4 allele. This hypothesis will be tested using data from the nationally-representative Health and Retirement Study and its sub-study, the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study.
This pilot study will develop advanced deep learning neural networks to analyze Clock-Drawing Test images to predict dementia diagnosis. The pilot will draw upon Medicare claims linked with a large, publicly available repository of clock images from the 2011-2019 National Health and Aging Trends Study, a panel study of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older.