2025-2026 Pilot Projects
Co-Occurring Income and Health Trajectories Following Labor Force Exit Analysis
PI: Callie Freitag (Assistant Professor, Social Work)
Description: Labor Force Exits and Trajectories of Economic Hardship and Poor Health in Later Life. The conditions under which adults exit the labor force can have long-ranging impacts on their economic and health trajectories.23-25 The age at which someone exits the labor force (before or after becoming eligible for Social Security retirement benefits) and the reasons for exiting the labor force (for retirement, disability, caregiving, or other reasons) may be key predictors of how someone fares once they stop working for pay. The proposed project will use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to: (1) estimate the relationships between the age and type of labor force exit and trajectories of economic hardship and poor health, (2) describe whether and how dimensions of structural oppression (including race and ethnicity, sex, class, nativity, and disability) moderate the relationships among the age and reason for exiting the labor force and trajectories of economic hardship and poor health, and (3) characterize the extent to which labor force exits, experiences of economic hardship, and trajectories of poor health co-occur or occur sequentially, and whether one event mediates the relationship between the other two. Findings will advance our understanding of the relationship between trajectories of economic hardship and poor health and provide the empirical foundation to support the development of a K01 proposal to NIA to study the impact of age graded social policies on lifelong health trajectories. CDHA themes: Aging Trajectories & Health Disparities; Health Policy & Health Services Research.
Hmoob Lub Neej (Hmong People’s Lives)
PI: Maichou Lor (Assistant Professor, Nursing)
Description: The Hmong are Wisconsin’s largest Asian American group.26 Having arrived in America as refugees following the Lao Civil War of 1972-1975, they have a disadvantaged socioeconomic profile and face physical and mental health burdens.27-28 They are underrepresented in existing population health studies and are often excluded from research due to barriers including limited English proficiency and poor access to translation and interpretation resources; a mismatch between Hmong oral culture and written surveys; and a lack of familiarity with and mistrust of research.13,26,40-41,44 The Hmoob Lub Neej (Hmong People’s Lives) project aims to address this important gap in knowledge, engage Hmong older adults in an innovative research study, and produce the data necessary for addressing health inequities experienced by this population. Thus far, the study has fielded a qualitative life history study collecting formative data and validated and pre-tested linguistically and culturally appropriate survey questions using cognitive interviews adapted specifically for Hmong participants. The next step is fielding a pilot survey collecting data on health, exposure to notable lifetime events (e.g., war, bereavement, migration, resettlement, and Contact PD/PI: Engelman, Michal Core-002 (002) Research Strategy Page 870 socioeconomic hardships), and individual, familial, and community supports that promote and enhance resilience in the Hmong refugee community. Support from CDHA will allow the project to expand the pilot survey sample and analyze the resulting data to generate preliminary findings and support an NIH R01 grant for scaling up the survey to a larger sample. CDHA themes: Place, Health, and Aging; Aging Trajectories & Health Disparities.
Spatial Risk Factors for Suicide Across the Adult Life Course
PI: Tamkinat Rauf (Assistant Professor, Sociology)
Description: The Social Causes of Suicide. Social environments are critical risk factors of poor mental health generally, and specifically for suicide, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. 29-33 The current project aims to better understand how different types of environmental risk factors interact with each other to shape suicide risk. We will use administrative data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) linked with CDC PLACES dataset, MSU Correlates of State Policy database, MIT County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2020, the Current Population Survey, and the American Community Survey. As such, each case in the database will be accompanied by comprehensive information about the social context of disadvantage that the victim inhabited. Then, using tools from machine learning and network (cluster) analysis as well as causal inference strategies we will analyze patterns of co-occurrence, clustering, and centrality of the disadvantages across ages (early midlife (25-44), late midlife (45-64), and older adulthood (65+)) for men and women. We will also examine how the patterns of inter-relationships have changed over time and in relation to economic and political trends. The output of this research will be useful for more precisely identifying high-risk groups within given macrosocial contexts and will help inform more strategic approaches to decrease suicide among the most vulnerable groups. CDHA themes: Health Policy & Health Services; Place, Health, and Aging; Aging & Health Disparities. In addition to the emerging scholar pilots, CDHA will also award a first Innovation pilot that develops new techniques aligned with our signature themes in the context of our major primary data collection efforts. This project will align with the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS)
Measuring AD biomarkers in dried plasma spots (DPS) in a deeply phenotyped longitudinal cohort
PI: Sanjay Asthana (Professor, Geriatrics, ADRC Director)
Description: The recent discovery of blood-based AD biomarkers and their validation and reliability against the gold standard PET brain imaging in detecting AD pathology, differentiating AD from non-AD dementias, and predicting cognitive decline as well as risk for dementia has revolutionized ADRD research. 34-40 However, the arduous collection of venous blood samples in older, frail adults and the complex processing and storage protocols have severely limited collection of blood in larger populations, especially those living in remote, underserved areas of Wisconsin and across the country. Using Dried blood spots (DBS) from a finger prick is a notable advancement in enhancing access to AD biomarker data in larger diverse populations living in marginalized communities or remote areas. This pilot award will be used to examine the feasibility of collecting DBS in select WLS participants living at home and compare the validity and reliability of AD biomarker results with those obtained in venous blood. The aims of this study are: (1) compare AD biomarkers from venous blood and DBS collected from 60 WLS participants at the time of their clinic-based PET imaging to determine feasibility and validity of biomarker analysis in bloodspots; (2) compare blood spots obtained from participants in clinic with those mailed later to their homes 2-4 weeks later, to understand variability in bloodspot biomarker measurements collected in non-clinical settings. Successful completion of this first-of-its-kind study involving a large, population-based, randomly selected cohort will demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of in-home DBS sample collection and validation of AD biomarker data with gold-standard PET imaging. Furthermore, results of this study will form the basis for larger NIH studies involving diverse, marginalized populations to enhance generalizability and access to novel AD diagnostics and therapeutics for underserved communities. CDHA themes: Biodemography; Demography of Dementia and Cognition.