Examining threats to the well-being of immigrant older adults and their caregivers to advance culturally sensitive, sustainable care interventions

The Foundation's initiative, New Connections: Bringing Diversity to RWJF Grantmaking and Increasing Secondary Data Analyses, was designed to address needs for data that can inform the Foundation's program planning or measure progress toward its strategic objectives. This research study will explore risk factors threatening the overall health of immigrant older adults and their family caregivers. Project aims are to: (1) investigate the racial/ethnic differences in the unique characteristics, stress, resources, and outcomes in the lives of immigrant/foreign-born older adults compared to U.S.-born older adults; (2) explore the differences in physical and emotional well-being over time, and then identify predictors of change in outcomes over time among immigrants/foreign-born older adults and U.S.-born older adults; (3) examine the risk factors associated with the well-being of family caregivers of immigrant older adults based on the stress-coping process compared to family caregivers of U.S.-born older adults; and (4) investigate the relationship between immigrant status and foreign-born older adults and their caregivers' well-being. The researcher will conduct secondary analyses of data from National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) and the National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). The NHATS is a nationally representative study of Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older that collects data from participants on an annual basis. The NSOC is a sample of 2007 informal caregivers identified by the 8,245 NHATS participants in 2011. The NSOC obtains information on the caregivers' health and background as well as assistance provided to the care recipient (older adults). The researcher's career development activities will include participation in a New Connections Annual Research and Coaching Clinic and the Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. Deliverables will include three manuscripts for submission to gerontology journals and three abstracts for conference presentations.