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Developing an Agenda for Population Aging and Social Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): A Workshop

Completed

The workshop will identify the most promising directions for behavioral and social science research and data infrastructure investment for studying life course health, aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The workshop will be organized around three broad factors particularly critical to aging in LMICs in the 21st century: (1) inequality, considering inequalities by rural-urban residence, gender, educational attainment, and economic opportunity; (2) environmental exposures, including climate change, extreme weather events, toxic exposures, and air pollution; and (3) family changes (generational wealth transfer, declining fertility, and rapid population aging).

Description

A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize and execute a two-day public workshop that will bring together an interdisciplinary group of experts to discuss behavioral and social research and data priorities for studying life course health, aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The workshop will focus on three priority topics: inequality, environmental exposures, and changes in family structure. The workshop will:

· Identify research priorities related to the impacts of inequality, environmental exposure, and family changes on the health and well-being of older populations in LMICs, with an emphasis on how existing data resources may be leveraged to address these topics.

· Discuss how country-specific research in LMICs can create a better understanding of how different social environments and public policies influence health outcomes related to aging; and how findings from country-specific LMIC research may be generalized to other settings, including the United States.

· Identify new conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and/or data investments that are needed to move from purely descriptive cross-national analyses to more causal analyses that create a better understanding of how inequality, environmental exposures, and changing family structures impact health and well-being at older ages in LMICs.

· Identify data (early-life prospective data or retrospective data from current older cohorts) that may be of interest for examining life-course trajectories of development and aging in LMICs.

After the workshop, a proceedings of the workshop, summarizing the presentations and discussions at the workshop, will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.

Contributors

Committee

Chair

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Michael Siri

Staff Officer

Sponsors

Department of Health and Human Services

Staff

Michael Siri

Lead

Malay Majmundar

Lead

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