The mission of the Global Aging and Community Initiative is to create new knowledge focused on the health and well-being of older persons worldwide through collaborative research across a broad global scientific community. The Initiative is supported by the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and housed at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Funded Projects
Linking Spirituality and Religiosity to Life and Health Expectancy: A Global Comparative Study, supported by the John Templeton Foundation
Health and Aging Post Conflict: War’s Enduring Effects Among Survivors in Vietnam (R01AG052537), supported by the National Institute on Aging
Latest News and Announcements
Data Collection begins in Vietnam
The study of the long-term impact of war on aging in Vietnam is now underway and began collecting preliminary data in February. The team returned to Vietnam in early May to collect biomarker data and conduct interviews. We look forward to what the results of this data collection will bring.
Thank you to Kim Korinek for the photos.
Presentations at the Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting
Dr. Zimmer recently presented the paper, “Does religious activity distinguish the mortality experiences of older Taiwanese? An analysis using nineteen-years of follow-up data” at the 2018 PAA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. Dr. Saito also presented the poster, “Life Expectancy and Active Life Expectancy by religious group in Kerala, India“. These presentations are part of the Linking Spirituality and Religiosity to Life and Health Expectancy project and use data from the 1989 Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan and the Kerala Aging Survey (KAS).
Dr. Anna Zajacova, Western University, also presented the paper, “The Rising Pain Prevalence Among Midlife Americans: How Steep, for Whom, and Why?”. Dr. Zimmer is a co-author on this paper.
New Research Published
Dr. Zimmer’s recent article “Persistent, Consistent, and Extensive: The Trend of Increasing Pain Prevalence in Older Americans”, co-authored with Dr. Anna Zajacova, has now been published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. This article sets to assess trends in pain prevalence from 1992 to 2014 among older U.S. adults and by major population subgroups, and test whether the trends can be explained by changes in population composition.
Preliminary Testing begins in Vietnam
Dr. Zimmer met with his team in Vietnam where their study of the long-term impact of war on aging in Vietnam has gotten under way with preliminary testing of the survey. The results of the preliminary test will allow the team to revise their survey and begin collecting data in earnest beginning in March, 2018.
Presentation at Academia Sinica
On December 11, 2017, Dr. Chi-Tsun Chiu, a collaborator on the Linking Spirituality and Religiosity to Life and Health Expectancy project, presented a paper entitled, “How do Multiple Dimensions of Religiosity Associate with Total and Disability-Free Life Expectancy among Older Adults in Taiwan?” at the Institute of Statistical Science at Academia Sinica.
Workshop presentation on pain prevalence
On December 8, 2017, Dr. Zimmer presented at a workshop sponsored by the ADDAPT working group (Addressing Disparities in the Distribution and Assessment of Pain and Its Treatments) of ACTTION. The presentation was entitled, “A Comparative Look at Pain Prevalence – Europe and Canada”.
REVES 2018 conference website now live
The “REVES@30 : Past, Present, and Future Trends in Population Health” site is now live as part of the Global Aging and Community website. The conference is organized by Dr. Zachary Zimmer and Dr. Mary Beth Ofstedal, and will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan from May 30-June 1, 2018.
SSM-Population Health paper out for one year
“Spirituality, Religiosity, Aging and Health in Global Perspective” has been well-cited in its first year since being published in the December 2016 SSM-Population Health Journal.
