Category
Social determinants of health
Older adults who smoke heavily have a hard time kicking the habit, even when they receive the most promising cessation treatment. “These are people who started smoking when they were very young, before we knew of all the dangers,” says… Continue Reading →
The Boston Public Health Commission has named UMass Boston gerontology doctoral student Adriana Hernandez to its Boston BOLD Stakeholder Coalition. Hernandez, who holds the university’s inaugural Frank Caro Scholarship for Social Justice in Aging, will help shape the City of… Continue Reading →
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Shu Xu started having trouble seeing. Several eye surgeries left the gerontology doctoral candidate unable to move around much or do daily work. Then the pandemic hit, prolonging the time she needed to… Continue Reading →
When COVID-19 infiltrated nursing homes and exacerbated long-term care workforce shortages, the federal government responded. In 2021, President Biden signed into law a one-year increase of the Medicaid matching rate for home and community-based services (HCBS) as part of the… Continue Reading →
New estimates based on the 2022 Elder IndexTM show that the risk of economic insecurity in later life is especially high for people of color. National averages suggest that among older people living alone, 43 percent of people who are… Continue Reading →
Recent data from the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston shows that nearly three-fourths of Americans aged 50 and older feel that healthcare providers consider their care preferences, but stark racial and socioeconomic inequities persist. While 83 percent of white adults… Continue Reading →
UMass Boston’s gerontology program—including the academic department, research institute, and four centers—will join the Robert and Donna Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences on July 1, 2023. The transition comes as part of a campus-wide reorganization effort led over… Continue Reading →
Data for Mississippi and Wyoming contrasts with highly populated New England states For more than a decade, a team of UMass Boston gerontology researchers has been producing detailed reports tracking data related to healthy aging for New England states. The… Continue Reading →
It’s been a busy and productive first year for Jaqueline Contrera Avila, PhD, an assistant professor of gerontology who joined UMass Boston in August 2022. In addition to preparing for and teaching two classes, she has expanded her research on… Continue Reading →
Researchers know that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) encounter healthcare disparities—fewer doctor’s visits and routine screenings, for example—even though they suffer health complications more frequently than the general population. New research begun by Jeffrey Stokes, PhD, assistant professor… Continue Reading →
