Healthy aging is determined not only by biology but by behaviors at both the individual and societal levels that may operate and affect outcomes over decades. Our conception of “behavior” includes individual behaviors, but also the extent to which networks, institutions and communities provide opportunities, incentives or obstacles to certain forms of behavior. The overarching research focus of CHABLIS is the examination of how how demographic and economic factors facilitate or suppress individual healthy aging behaviors (HABs) and, in turn, influence outcomes among older adults over the life course.

The center promotes research in the demography and economics of aging by:

• Extending established data resources and ongoing cohort studies that support longitudinal investigations of aging
• Funding and supporting pilot projects that advance CHABLIS core research focus and help foster the development of early career researchers
• Developing, assessing, and disseminating rapid assessments of data collection and measurement innovations that can help address current challenges in conducting longitudinal studies of aging

Research Areas

Some of the center’s active research areas include:

• Individual healthy aging behaviors
• Family, networks and the life course
• Aging in community and larger social contexts
• Health outcomes at the hospital, neighborhood, and municipal levels
• Measurement and methods for longitudinal studies on aging
• Models of care for medically and social complex older adults
• Integration of systemic and oral health
• Personalized medicine and preemptive pharmacogenetic testing, including in minority populations