Center on Population Health and Aging

About CPHA

Penn State's Center on Population Health and Aging (CPHA) was founded in 2004 by a P30 grant from the National Institute on Aging. The mission of the CPHA is to provide a synergistic research environment supporting the development of innovative interdisciplinary research dealing with the challenges of a growing and increasingly diverse older population. The center brings together outstanding faculty from the population sciences (demography, sociology, economics, and anthropology) as well as from fields such as behavioral genetics, human development and biobehavioral health. Core activities include:

• An annual competition to support faculty pilot research
• Sponsoring a seminar series, focal research networks, technical workshops and scientific conferences
• Providing technical support for population research in conjunction with Penn State's Population Research Institute.

The CPHA is an inter-center collaboration of five multidisciplinary research centers at Penn State: the Population Research Institute, the Center for Health Care and Policy Research, the Gerontology Center, the Center for Developmental and Health Genetics, and the Center for Family Research in Diverse Contexts. This collaboration represents a common commitment to:

• Promote the population sciences in inter-disciplinary research on the health and well-being of the older population
• Establish lines of communication to a diverse scientific community
• Leverage infrastructural resources to support CPHA faculty
• Provide a cost-effective organizational setting in support of CPHA researchers

The CPHA encourages research in five over-lapping thematic areas that represent key challenges confronting the older population and are of specific concern to public policy makers.

1. The interrelationships among socioeconomic status, race-ethnicity and health
2. Trends and differences in chronic disease and disability
3. Biodemographic approaches to aging and health
4. Work and family perspectives on the health and well being of the older population
5. Living arrangements and care of the frail elderly

The complex nature of these problems highlights the importance of CPHA's interdisciplinary scientific lens.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Duane Alwin, Director
308 Pond Lab
University Park, PA 16802
863-0438
dfa2@psu.edu

Last modified: 09/17/09 | Contact Webmaster