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November 2012

Fighting On!

By Featured, Students

The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology took center stage at the 65th annual scientific meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), held this year in San Diego.

As always, the field’s preeminent conference provided multiple opportunities for USC Leonard Davis students, faculty and alumni to shine, as well as for the School’s popular reception to anchor the social and networking side of the event.

“I was so proud to see USC represented so strongly all over GSA,” said Emily Nabors, program coordinator and evaluator for the School’s Fall Prevention Center of Excellence. “It’s so inspiring to see the breadth and depth of the work done at USC while also gaining new insight into what our colleagues around the world are doing.”

Under the umbrella of GSA’s 2012 theme, “Charting New Frontiers in Aging,” USC Leonard Davis School faculty covered a variety of topics, including Tuck Finch on Alzheimer’s disease, Elizabeth Zelinski on gerontechnology, Bob Knight on psychological assessment and interventions, Kate Wilber on elder abuse prevention and Tara Gruenewald on the intersection of socioeconomic and physical health. USC Leonard Davis doctoral students were also well represented among the experts, including Joohong Min on Korean Baby Boomers, Shoshana Hindin on aging’s effect on language acquisition, Shieva Davarian on the health of older Japanese adults and Alison Balbag on music as preventative dementia therapy.

Trojans had much to celebrate, and attendees to the USC Leonard Davis School reception offered a champagne toast to the School’s Eileen Crimmins, who was not only inducted into the Institute of Medicine but also won GSA’s 2012 Robert W. Kleemeier Award for her outstanding research. Another reason to celebrate was the fact that the School is on the cusp of its twentieth anniversary bestowing PhDs in gerontology, with the world’s first going to Valentina Villa in 1993.

“It was really wonderful to see such ‘old’ friends and to meet graduates of later cohorts,” said Sandy Reynolds of the University of South Florida. “As a USC Leonard Davis School PhD alum, what a joy to be able to celebrate the ongoing success of our PhD program in a year where we also celebrate Eileen Crimmins, since she has had such an important role in the success of the program.”

Along with the aforementioned “old” friends, Trojans were equally enthusiastic to welcome and rally behind newer friends, especially Pinchas Cohen, who was delighted to attend his first GSA as dean of the USC Leonard Davis School.

“It is a great honor to be among such world-class colleagues and friends who share our dream of a better quality of life for every aging person,” Cohen said. “I am proud of all of our extremely talented Trojans, near and far, who work every day to bring this dream one step closer to reality.”

Click here for a complete list of all programs, presentations and posters.

What’s Your Number?

By Featured

Sorry Los Angeles—you lost to Provo-Orem, Utah (#1), Des Moines, IA (#6) and Toledo, Ohio (#8). In the first-ever “Best Cities for Successful Aging” ranking report, the City of Angels finished a less-than-heavenly #30.

Sorry Los Angeles—you lost to Provo-Orem, Utah (#1), Des Moines, IA (#6) and Toledo, Ohio (#8). In the first-ever “Best Cities for Successful Aging” ranking report, the City of Angels finished a less-than-heavenly #30.

Compiled by the Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, the report made waves around the country at every professional level, sending many of the nation’s mayors and civic committees scrambling to figure out ways to make their cities more senior-friendly.

Paul H. Irving, senior managing director and chief operating officer of the Milken Institute, discussed the study’s impetus, goals and impact with members of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in a presentation entitled “The Aging Opportunity: Rethinking the Demographic Shift.”

“Our theory of the world is you have to do really good data-driven work and you have to find a way to connect it to public policy and leadership,” he said. “For many of the people sitting in this audience: this will affect our lives and the lives of your peers around the world.”

After describing the enormous aging-related challenges facing the United States and world, including projected explosions in the number of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and depression, Irving explained that part of the problem is that aging is seen as a negative, taboo topic, that receives less funding, awareness and research than it deserves.

“People don’t like to talk about aging. Maybe it’s our own fear of hair loss or wrinkles or death, but it needs to be done. I think each one of you can have a hand in doing that,” he said. “As members of a unique community: I would challenge you to think about how frame your work and your discussions around issues related to aging.”

Using statistics that include costs of living, employment growth and rate, crime, weather and the number of health professionals in the ranking system, Irving explained that the Milken Institute’s goal in creating this report was to provide a data-driven resource that could help spark discussions and inspire positive changes.

Fielding questions from audience members about the methodology, scope and ramifications of the study, Irving closed by thanking the USC Leonard Davis School and its students and faculty for helping reimagine and redefine what it means to age, to retire and to embark on a second career—a feeling that seemed mutual.

“Paul stands for everything we believe in at the USC Leonard Davis School,” said USC Leonard Davis School dean Pinchas Cohen, MD “This index is a total game changer and should be something people take a serious look at.”

To view the study, visit http://successfulaging.milkeninstitute.org/.

USC Davis Postdoc Links Air Pollutants to Diminished Senior Brain Function

By Diversity, Featured, Student Profile

 

At first, USC’s large, interdisciplinary series of studies into air pollution and brain health seemed outside the wheelhouse of USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology postdoc Jennifer Ailshire, a sociologist and demographer.

After leading researcher Caleb E. Finch tapped her to contribute to the massive project, however, she found an unexpected and extremely valuable niche. By conducting the first study to show how exposure to air pollution influences cognitive function in a national sample of older men and women, Ailshire found that living in areas of high air pollution is indeed an environmental risk to seniors’ brain health.

“The Ailshire study shows the unexpectedly adverse effects of air pollutants on brain function in US elderly,” said Finch, a University Professor and holder of the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the USC Leonard Davis School. “Her multidisciplinary approach is a model for analyzing the complex interactions of location and outcomes of aging.”

“This is a new area of research for me, so having a group of scholars with such diversity of expertise to learn from has been tremendously helpful,” Ailshire said. “I credit Dr. Finch for his vision in creating such a vibrant and diverse community of scholars organized around an issue that is of great interest not only to researchers but also to policy makers and the public.”

Along with additional papers on longevity factors and financial health, Ailshire presented her findings at a poster session at the 65th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in San Diego, noting that her findings are especially pertinent to Southern California.

“I hope this research draws more attention to the adverse effects of air pollution on population health, and particularly the health of older adults,” she said. “This issue is especially relevant for the Los Angeles area where pollution levels are so high, far above national levels and EPA standards, and the population of older adults is growing so rapidly.”

Besides providing a valuable public health service, Ailshire’s study also highlights how gerontological research encompasses many fields and impacts every living—and therefore aging—person.

“Jennifer is very wise to have broadened her scope and to draw on the multidisciplinary resources here at USC,” said Eileen Crimmins, the USC Leonard Davis School AARP Chair holder and Ailshire’s preceptor. “What she has found has important implications for all of us.”

Pike promoted to full professor

By Featured

Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School, announced this week that longtime researcher Christian Pike, PhD, was promoted from associate to full professor.

A biogerontologist with a joint appointment in neuroscience, Pike focuses his research on Alzheimer’s disease, specifically the role sex steroid hormones play. Pike has made national headlines for his research into the effects of testosterone and estrogen during the aging process.

“Christian Pike’s visionary research is an invaluable resource not just for our School and his colleagues, but also for all aging people,” said Cohen. “We are lucky to have him and proud of the groundbreaking work he has done and will continue to do here.”

Student Wins Award for Groundbreaking Paper on Minority End-of-Life Pain Management

By Caregiving, Featured, Honors and Awards, Student Profile
USC Davis School of Gerontology doctoral student Jeff Laguna (Photo/Trevor Nelson)

USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology doctoral student Jeff Laguna (Photo/Trevor Nelson)

End-of-life pain is poorly managed across the board, but why, even with palliative care efforts, do minorities suffer disproportionately?

Tackling what he calls the first study to investigate pain experiences among Whites, Blacks and Latinos following inpatient palliative care (IPC) consults, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology doctoral student Jeff Laguna won the Gerontological Society of America’s Elaine M. Brody Award, given for excellence in research.

Co-authored with Rebecca Goldstein, MD, and USC Leonard Davis School Hanson Family Trust Assistant Professor of Gerontology Susan Enguídanos, PhD, MPH, the study was funded by the Archstone Foundation, examining 484 seriously ill patients and how their racial/ethnic differences impacted their end-of-life pain.

“We found something very interesting. Although palliative care did a great job at reducing pain among a racially/ethnically diverse patient population, it seems that Latinos were still more likely to report pain at hospital discharge,” Laguna said. “Previous research suggests a couple possible explanations, but a more detailed study will be needed to understand why Latinos appear to respond differently.”

Some of the existing explanations include the potential for Latinos to view end-of-life pain as a time of necessary and even welcome personal and/or spiritual cleansing, highlighting Laguna’s findings that IPC interventions may need to increase cultural sensitivity. He also finds that this increased awareness will inform future policy changes, which could help revolutionize the way we think about end-of-life care.

“After decades of recognizing the existence of ethnic disparities in health care access and health outcomes, we are continuing to see these patterns today. Illuminating these disparities is a first step to understanding and overcoming them,” Enguídanos said. “Jeff’s commitment to investigating disparities and improving equitable quality of care is commendable and critical.”

“For me, this award is the culmination of a lot of hard work, as I had to travel halfway across the country to master the analyses performed in this study,” Laguna said. “It is my hope that this study opens the door for a more detailed investigation. While this is the first step of many, I believe that it is an important step.”

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