Research
The Elderly Care Research Center
Dr. Eva Kahana, Director
Project Website
Primary activities of the Center include research into diverse theory based on relevant public policy issues related to the elderly. A programmatic thrust at the Center has been the focus on health and mental health outcomes of stress, coping and adaptation.
Research has been focused on predictors of wellness as well as of vulnerability. Study samples have ranged from the frail and institutionalized aged to adventurous older adults undertaking long distance moves. Cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons and focus on ethnic differences also represent a unique aspect of our orientation to research. In recognition of the multiple environmental and social influences on well-being of the elderly, research has been interdisciplinary in nature, bringing to bear qualitative as well as quantitative methods of Sociology, Psychology and other social science disciplines on the issues under study. In addition to publishing results of research in professional journals and presenting them to the scientific community, ECRC is committed to broad dissemination of research in a readily understood format to community organizations, professionals and to elderly participants in diverse studies. Effective intervention programs have been developed and implemented based on findings of some research projects.
Elderly Care Research Center Brochure
The Cancer Survivors Research Program
Dr. Gary Deimling, Director
Project Website
Conducted at the Sociology Department of Case Western Reserve University, the Cancer Survivors Research Program (CSRP) investigates important research issues in psychosocial oncology. Formally started in September 1998, the CSRP has been funded for 10 years by the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Gary Deimling serves as the CSRP's director and principal investigator and is assisted by colleagues in the Department of Sociology and the Case School of Medicine.
As with many other research programs within the department and the university at large, the CSRP also serves as a teaching facility by training graduate students in the many methodological and theoretical aspects of sociomedical research. The project allows students in the Sociology Ph.D. program to gain hands-on experience in a formal research setting while putting their coursework into practice.
FreshLink: Increasing Access to Healthy Foods in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods
Dr. Jessica Kelley-Moore, Principal Investigator
Professor Jessica Kelley-Moore studies the causes and consequences of health disparities over the life course, particularly those related to race, socioeconomic status, and disability. Previously, Jessica had a grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the relative influence of individual and community-level characteristics on the subsequent health of Black and White older adults over time. In addition, she was also Co-Investigator on the National Institute on Aging Intramural study “Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span” [HANDLS], a 20-year panel study of nearly 4,000 Black and White residents of Baltimore, MD. She designed and conducted the ecological (environmental, city, and neighborhood) levels of the project, so that we may better understand how the socialharacteristics, physical environment, and available resources of a neighborhood influence health and well-being.
She currently has two streams of research underway, both addressing issues of health disparities. First, she is examining the dynamics of late-life health and functioning, including cumulative disadvantage processes, mid-life selection mechanisms, and social patterns in inter-individual variability. She and her students have published and presented several papers on these topics.
Second, Jessica studies how the neighborhood and environment influence differential health outcomes. Jessica is currently the Principal Investigator of “FreshLink,” an intervention study designed to increase the availability of healthier food options in urban neighborhoods in Greater Cleveland. FreshLink is the Core Research Project of the CWRU Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods, funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information about FreshLink and the PRCHN, visit http://prchn.org/core-project/.