Research Snapshots

These are research highlights taken from our newsletter, the Life Course Ledger. Sign up to receive the LCC's monthly newsletter by emailing [email protected].



Associations Between Loneliness, Epigenetic Aging, and Multimorbidity Through Older Adulthood

The Journals of Gerontology, Series B  |  LCC Member: Robert Krueger

  • Baseline loneliness was associated with greater epigenetic age acceleration in the GrimAge measure 
  • Loneliness and GrimAge each predicted increasing condition counts, but there was no evidence of an interactive effect
  • Results suggest the impact of loneliness on multimorbidity may, in part, operate through DNA methylation 



Which aspects of education are health protective? A life-course examination

BMC Public Health  |  LCC Member: Glenn Roisman

 



Racial Wealth Disparities in Older Age and Social Security Program Participation

Center for Financial Security and Retirement & Disability Research Center  

LCC Member Samuel L. Myers, Jr.   



The Making of African Made: Memory and Dementia Education by and for the African Immigrant Community

Life Course Center members Manka Nkimbeng, Tetyana Shippee, and Joe Gaugler collaborated with a community project advisory board to develop a culturally tailored dementia education program and booklet for the African immigrant community in Minnesota. 



Seeking Equity in Aging

LCC Members Shekinah Fashaw-Walters and Tetyana Shippee study the disparities that exist in care for aging BIPOC communities—and offer solutions.

Read more in this great feature from the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. 

 



Playing professional football may shorten players' lives

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  |  Rob Warren and Gina Rumore

The research team conducted two sets of analyses in this new study. First, they compared men drafted to play professional football in the 1950s — some of whom played and some of whom never played in any professional league. Second, they compared professional football players who began their careers in the late 1980s through the mid 1990s to a nationally representative group of men who — like football players — were employed, not disabled, not in poverty and who completed at least three years of college.  

They found:

  • Linemen die earlier than otherwise similar men.
  • Other position players die no sooner or later.
  • 3.1% of football players died within 25 years of initial observation.
  • 2.3% of comparable American men died within that time frame. 



Life Course Center Names Janette Dill Associate Director

We are excited to announce Janette Dill as the new Associate Director of the University of Minnesota Life Course Center for the Demography and Economics of Aging. Dr. Dill is an Associate Professor in the Health Policy & Management Division in the School of Public Health and the Deputy Director of the Consortium for Workforce Research in Public Health. Her research focuses on job quality and career mobility across the life course among the health care and public health workforce.



Racial Differences in Nursing Home Quality of Life Among Residents Living With Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Journal of Aging and Health  |  Shippee, T. P., Parikh, R. R., Baker, Z. G., Bucy, T. I., Ng, W., Jarosek, S., Qin, X., Woodhouse, M., Nkimbeng, M., & McCarthy, T.

  • Compared to White residents, racially/ethnically minoritized residents reported significantly lower quality of life 
  • Significant differences remained, even after adjusting for resident- and facility-level characteristics
  • Large disparities in food enjoyment, attention from staff, and engagement domains



Study indicates need to directly measure quality of life for residents in nursing home facilities

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association  |  Tetyana Pylypiv Shippee, Romil R. Parikh, Yinfei Duan, John R. Bowblis, Mark Woodhouse, and Teresa Lewis 

  • Study in Minnesota and Ohio shows that the Minimum Data Set 3.0 for measuring deficiencies in nursing homes only accounts for a small proportion of variance in residents’ quality of life
  • Direct surveys of quality of life among residents is necessary to plan and evaluate person-centered care in nursing home facilities 



Respite and social support improve caregivers’ wellbeing more than exercise interventions

Innovation in Aging  |  Tai Sims, Kristine Talley, Joseph Gaugler, Cynthia Peden-McAlpine, Laura Kirk, Fang Yu

  • Caregivers for persons with Alzheimer’s dementia experience reduced sense of burden and improved wellbeing from community-based exercise programs for the people they care for
  • Qualitative findings suggest the improvements were the result of the respite and social support provided by the program, not the exercise itself