Older Adults
Group members have created a comprehensive data infrastructure of Medicare and Medicaid data pertaining to nursing home and assisted living residents, as well as community-living older adults, maintaining data-use agreements with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services for an abundance of personally identifiable data. Group members are expanding the Residential History File methodology to create datasets that track patients over time. This allows examining the progress of individuals through the disablement process from independent community living, through dependence on community-based long-term services and supports to institutional and end-of-life care. Other sources of data including from the Veterans Health Administration and survey data have also been employed to address numerous research questions. These data are often used by PhD students for their doctoral theses.
Examples of current research projects: 1) formation and impact of organizational structures in nursing homes and assisted living communities. Organizational factors studied include medical staff organization, chain affiliation and proprietary status; 2) impact of state Medicaid and HCBS (home- and community-based service) policies on organization formation and patient outcomes, especially for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD); 3) Exploring the biopsychosocial determinants of HIV care engagement, social support, and the development of targeted intervention to enhance overall health-related quality-of-life among older people living with HIV.
Program Faculty
Helena Temkin-Greener, Ph.D., M.S.