The Tufts Health Plan Foundation has commissioned a UMass Boston gerontology research team to produce 2018 Healthy Aging Data Reports for Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The reports are designed to help residents, agencies, providers and governments understand the older adults who live in their cities and towns – their ages, living arrangements, health status, strengths and vulnerabilities. Research and preparation of the reports will be funded by a two-year grant of $459,000 from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

The researchers from the Gerontology Institute at the McCormack Graduate School are led by Associate Professor Elizabeth Dugan (in the team photo, left to right, post doctoral fellow Chae Man Lee, Dugan, Professor Frank Porell and Professor Nina Silverstein).

The team will produce comprehensive community profiles for every Massachusetts and New Hampshire city and town. Each profile details more than 120 individual and community health indicators as well as statewide rates. The data will make it possible to compare a town or city to the rest of the state by indicator.

“The Data Reports are key tools for state and local policymakers adapting to a new demographic reality,” said Dugan. “Having so much information focused on healthy aging has informed resource allocation, service delivery and planning efforts. In addition, the reports help advocates to better understand the needs and resources in their communities.”

The new research will follow a Healthy Aging Data Report for Massachusetts issued in 2014 and updated the following year, as well as a similar Rhode Island report released last year. Both earlier reports were also funded by the foundation.