Enhancing Diversity in Healthy Aging Cohorts for Improved Research on Longevity and Health Span

collage of diverse peoples surrounding a globe

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Audience

Scientists involved in longevity and health span research.

Dates

August 6, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET

August 7, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET

Purpose and Background

Exceptional longevity (EL) can be characterized in several ways, including survival to a specific extreme age (longevity), disability free (active life expectancy), disease-free relative to peers (exceptionally healthy aging), or cognitively intact survival. Epidemiological studies of long-lived individuals/ centenarians using such definitions continue to provide insight into the interactions between morbidity, mortality, and survival to older ages and indicate that a strong relationship exists between exceptional longevity and exceptional health span. Individuals with exceptional health and life span are believed to reflect combined influences of environmental and multiple genetic variants that influence health and life span. The goal of research on EL and health span is to promote healthy aging by improving the extent and quality of health span through actionable lifestyle, environmental, and/or pharmaceutical interventions.

There is a need for increasing the racial/ethnic composition of the EL cohorts with the goal toward understanding whether there are racial/ethnic and SES population differences in factors contributing to EL and identifying those factors. The longevity in racial/ethnic or low SES populations may vary due to shorter life expectancies. Given the complex interplay of social/physical environment and genetics impacting phenotypes, increasing the diversity of the cohorts examined for exceptional longevity also improves our understanding of other explanatory variables, such as socioeconomic status, rural versus urban environments, and lived experience.

The objectives of the workshop were to discuss collaborative approaches for increasing racial/ethnic composition of the EL cohorts (as listed below), including possible study design considerations, identification of core variables to be collected across diverse populations, needs for standardization of data collection methods, data harmonization, ethical considerations and to explore possible research infrastructures to support such collaborative efforts:

  • Collaborative analyses (comparison with and/or pooled data) with existing longitudinal cohorts with long-lived individuals from diverse populations.
  • Opportunities for longitudinal data analysis following new data/biospecimen collection from ongoing cohort studies.
  • Addition of long-lived individuals from different racial/ethnic groups to existing EL cohorts.

Agenda

Note: This agenda is in Eastern Daylight Time.

Day 1 | Tuesday, August 6

9:00 a.m. Opening Remarks, NIA and NIMHD Staff

9:10 Keynote Presentation, What and how do we learn from studying longevity in diverse groups? Genetic and social and behavioral issues in between and within group research on Longevity, Keith E. Whitfield, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

9:30 a.m. Session I | Research Design and Lessons Learned From Existing Exceptional Longevity (EL) Cohorts
Moderator: Mary Wojczynski, Washington University School of Medicine

  • Study design, measures, and modes of data collection

    • Recruitment strategies for long lived individuals and centenarians, Thomas Perls, Boston University
    • The Family Longevity Selection Score (FLoSS) for recruitment of long-lived families, Paola Sebastiani, Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center
    • Healthy Aging Phenotypes - Healthy Aging Index and others, Anne Newman, University of Pittsburgh
    • Characterizing cognitive function and resilience AD in long-lived individuals and families, Stacy Andersen, Boston University
    • Digital and multimodal data collection methods in EL populations (SuperAgers Family Study), Sofiya Milman, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

  • Insights on exceptionally healthy aging and resilience of long-lived individuals

    • Long Life Family Study (Danish and US families), Kaare Christensen, University of Southern Denmark
    • Okinawa Centenarian Study and the Kuakini Hawaii Lifespan Study, Bradley Willcox*, Okinawa Research Center for Longevity Science, Kuakini Medical Center and University of Hawaii
    • Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), Qiushi Feng*, National University of Singapore

11:30 a.m. Q & A Session

12:00 p.m. Working Lunch (pick up lunch and begin afternoon session at 12:30 PM)

12:30 p.m. Session 2 | Creating a Framework for Research on Exceptional Longevity in Different Racial/Ethnic Groups
Moderator: Paola Sebastiani, Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center

  • Should there be race/ethnicity-specific criteria for exceptional longevity?

    • Racial and Ethnic Mortality Disparities in the US, Elizabeth Arias, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    • Life course exposures and events influencing adult morbidity and mortality experiences, Mark D. Hayward, University of Texas at Austin
    • Changes in mortality rates at very old ages and in different populations, Nadine Ouellette, University of Montreal

1:15 p.m. Panel Discussion, Keith E. Whitfield, Helen Hazuda, Sohail Khan, Jinkook Lee, Rachel Whitmer and Bradley Willcox

2:30 p.m. Break

2:45 p.m. Session 2 | Creating a Framework for Research on Exceptional Longevity in Different Racial/Ethnic Groups
Moderator: Nancy W. Glynn, University of Pittsburgh

  • Domains (e.g., biological, behavioral, sociocultural, and environmental) and modes of data collection

    • Contextual and Psychosocial Factors in Aging Among Diverse Older Adults, Crystal M. Glover*, Rush University Medical Center
    • Measures of psychological resilience in aging and diverse groups, Dawn Carr, Florida State University
    • Neighborhood and Environmental Exposures, Jennifer Ailshire, University of Southern California
    • Core domains for healthy aging and resilience - common elements across populations, Anne Newman, University of Pittsburgh
    • Collecting neuroimaging data in diverse cohort studies in the USA and Brazil, David Bennett, Rush University Medical Center

4:00 p.m. Group Discussion

5:00 p.m. Adjourn

Day 2 | Wednesday, August 7

9:00 a.m. Recap of Day 1 Discussions

9:10 a.m. Session 3 | Operationalizing an EL research framework/study design considerations in diverse populations
Moderator: Patricia Jones, National Institute on Aging

  • Maximizing participant engagement and retention (gaining trust, community engagement, cultural adaptation, translation/back translation of study materials, flexible scheduling)

    • Community engagement strategies to facilitate recruitment and retention, Carrie Karvonen-Gutierrez, University of Michigan
    • Special Challenges and Opportunities for Recruiting African American centenarians and Long-lived Families, Thomas Perls, Boston University
    • Biopsychosocial Pathways to Long and Short lives: Input from MIDUS, Carol Ryff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • Pilot study on sharing of genetic results with study participants, Bharat Thyagarajan*, University of Michigan

10:30 a.m. Group Discussion

11:30 a.m. Break and Pick up Lunch

11:45 p.m. Session 4 | Possible opportunities for collaborative analyses (case studies)
Moderator: John Phillips, National Institute on Aging

  • Health and Retirement Study (HRS), Jessica Faul, University of Michigan
  • Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment for LASI (LASI-DAD), Jinkook Lee, University of Southern California
  • Enhancing Studies of Diverse Populations in the UK Biobank and Beyond, Nicholas Schork, The Translational Genomics Research Institute

1:10 p.m. Break

  • Life After 90 study, Rachel Whitmer, University of California, Davis
  • San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA), Helen Hazuda, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • Strong Heart Study (SHS) and SHS Family study, Sudha Seshadri, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio

2:25 p.m. Q & A Session

3:25 p.m. Session 5 | Possible research infrastructures to advance research on EL in diverse populations
Moderators: Beth Wilmot and Chhanda Dutta, National Institute on Aging

4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks and Adjourn

*Presentation will be pre-recorded, or presenter will be giving their talk virtually.

Contact Information

Please contact Beth Wilmot at beth.wilmot@nih.gov for questions you have about the webinar.