Duke Center for Population Health and Aging researchers, Kenneth Dodge and V. Joseph Hotz, along with colleagues William Copeland, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, and Kathleen Cagney, Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, were recently awarded the NIA funded, The Great Smoky Mountains Study of Rural Aging [R01AG072459]. This multimillion dollar award will collect data to augment the longitudinal Great Smoky Mountains Study (GSMS) creating a national data resource, the Great Smoky Mountains Study of Rural Aging (GSMS-RA), for the study of early determinants of the aging experience in a rural context, capturing the full arc of a life with intimate detail about living and aging in a rural environment. The study team will locate, recontact and assess 80%+ of the GSMS participants, now in their early 40’s, with a 120-minute in-home assessment, including collection of demographic and socioeconomic and attitudinal information, neurocognitive tasks, and biomeasure collection. PIs will maximize access and use of the GSMS-RA for a new audience of users, scientists, and potential collaborators. The project brings together longstanding GSMS researchers (Copeland and Dodge) with new collaborators who have led large-scale data collection projects in middle and later adulthood (Hotz and Cagney). The study design is methodologically innovative in gathering high-quality data on everyday life via GPS monitoring and an EMA design coupled with actigraphy and rural context profiles via a combination of Census and other administrative data, systematic social observations, and participant/neighbor surveys.
See Duke Award Announcement for more information.