Center on Population Health and Aging

Pilot Projects

Pilot Project 5: Socioeconomic Disparities in Women's Health in the US: Investigating Genes and Environment over the Life Course

Principal Investigator: Melissa Hardy (Penn State). Co-investigators: Eliza Pavalko (Indiana), Robert M. Hauser (Wisconsin), Eileen Crimmins (USC), David Almeida (Penn State), George Vogler (Penn State), and Gerald McClearn (Penn State)

Specific Aims

1. Build a consortium of interested researchers across existing demography of aging centers to continue data collection for two of the original cohorts in the National Longitudinal Surveys, now referred to as the NLSW;
2. Secure funding to build on the 36 years of existing data for these two cohorts by initiating the collection of buccal swabs for the subsequent identification of genetic markers;
3. Develop testable hypotheses based on the integration of genetic information with behavioral and environmental information already collected;
4. Investigate possibility of adding information from the NDI for sample members who die;
5. Begin to develop a survey instrument to re-interview the NLSW and better address issues of health (including cognitive function) and health behaviors for surviving respondents; propose linking to national death records to collect more specific information on date and cause of death for cohort decedents.

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Last modified: 09/17/09 | Contact Webmaster