Aging
In the past 100 years, life expectancy has doubled from age 40 to around age 80 today. The ways in which individuals enter adulthood and experience midlife, and ultimately old age warrants increased research attention. Social, emotional, familial factors that contribute to adult development are of particular importance.
Much of the work in this area is through the Center on Aging and the Life Course, which promotes aging-related interdisciplinary research and education that enhances quality of life. It seeks to generate, integrate, disseminate, and apply gerontologist knowledge that addresses complex life course topics.
- emotional qualities of interpersonal ties from young adulthood to late old age
- dyadic processes of married couples managing chronic illness in middle and late life
- connections between work conditions and adult expressions of generativity
- how personality and well-being change over time, and how that change is related to physical health and mortality
- impact of aging on travel behavior
- the family processes related to youth's family relationships and individual adjustment from adolescence into early adulthood
- more
Nutrition in Older Adults
With the aging of America comes concern for quality of life and well-being in the later years. Research being done in foods and nutrition is also looking at aging, and how nutrition and exercise can improve health for older adults.
- aging and free radical production
- calcium absorption in older adults
- dietary alternatives to estrogen-replacement therapy for postmenopausal women
- how nutrition, exercise, and aging impact appetite and ingestive behaviors
- how protein metabolism, body composition, and glucose metabolism change in older people with changes in protein intake, body weight, and exercise
- optimal protein intake for older and elderly people
- more