Contextualizing Health and Aging in the Americas | Effects of Space, Time and Place

This book presents new insights into the consequences of the impending growth in and impact of the older segment of Latino aging adults across distinctive regions of the Americas. It uses a comparative research framework to further understanding of current issues in health and aging in the transnational context of the health and migratory experiences of the U.S.- Mexican population. It provides an important contribution to the interdisciplinary investigation of chronic diseases and functional impairments, social care and medical services, care-giving and intervention development, and neighborhood factors supporting optimal aging, using new conceptual and methodological approaches (inter-group comparisons). Specifically, the chapters employ different methodologies that investigate trends in aging health and services related to immigration processes, family and household structure, macroeconomic changes in the quality of community life, and focus on the new realities of aging in Latino families in local communities. The book focuses on measurement, data-quality issues, new conceptual modeling techniques, and longitudinal survey capabilities, and suggests needed areas of new research. As such it is of interest to researchers and policy makers in a wide range of disciplines from social and behavioral sciences to economics, gerontology, geriatrics, and public health.

Williams A. Vega is a Provost Professor at USC with appointments in social work, preventive medicine, psychiatry, family medicine, psychology and gerontology, and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is the Cleofas and Victor Ramirez Professor of Practice, Policy, Research and Advocacy for the Latino Population at the USC School of Social Work. Vega is also the Executive Director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Prior to joining the USC Roybal Institute, he was director of the Luskin Center on Innovation and an associate provost at UCLA.

Professor Vega has conducted community and clinical research projects on health, mental health and substance abuse throughout the United States and Latin America. His specialty is multi-cultural epidemiologic and services research with adolescents and adults — work that has been funded by multiple public and private sources. He has published more than 200 articles and chapters, in addition to several books. In 2006, the ISI Web of Science listed him in the top half of one percent of the most highly cited researchers worldwide in social science literature over the past 20 years, and currently listed in Research Gate in the top 2% internationally. He is the recipient of many awards including the Community, Culture and Prevention Science Award from the Society for Prevention Research, the Award of Excellence in Research by a Senior Scientist from the National Hispanic Science Network, in 2013 received the Rema Lapouse Award from the Mental Health, Epidemiology, and Statistics Sections of the American Public Health Association, an the Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hispanic Behavioral Health Institute in 2013.

Jacqueline L. Angel is Professor of Public Affairs and Sociology and a Faculty Affiliate at the Population Research Center and LBJ School Center for Health and Social Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the U.T. Faculty, she did her post-doctoral training at Rutgers in mental health services research and the Pennsylvania State University Program in Demography of Aging. Her research addresses the relationships linking family structures, inequality, and health across the life course, including a special focus on older Hispanics. She is particularly interested in evaluating the impact of social policies on the health and well-being of aging immigrants.

Dr. Angel is Co-Investigator on the NIA-funded Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (H-EPESE) and Principal Investigator of an R01 National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities study examining the risk of health and long-term care in aging Mexican-origin families (2010-2012). In addition, she is Co-Organizer of the NIA-funded (R-13) grant for the Conference Series on Aging in the Americas: Mexico and the United States. She is author/coauthor/ editor of 80 journal articles, 30 book chapters, 10 books, and numerous essays. Some of her recent publications include: Latinos in an Aging World (with Ronald Angel), Challenges of Latino Aging in the Americas, co-edited (William Vega, Kyriakos Markides, and Fernando Torres-Gil); and Handbook of the Sociology of Aging with Rick Settersten (ASA, Section on Aging and the Life Course Outstanding Publication Award). Dr. Angel is a Fellow of the Behavioral and Social Sciences section of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and a Senior Fellow at the Sealy Center on Aging, UTMB School of Medicine. In 2010, she received the GSA Senior Service Scholar Award for her research on health care disparities in older adults and in 2012 the Jacob’s Institute of Women’s Health Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize for the best manuscript in 2011.

Luis Miguel F. Gutiérrez Robledo is the Director General of the National Institute of Geriatrics in Mexico. In 2016 he was elected as a corresponding international member of the National Academy of Medicine in France. Dr. Gutiérrez was appointed by the National Academy of Medicine to serve as the expert lead of the Mexican Aging and Health Strategy. He has served in various national and global committees including the Advisory Committee at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and the Pan American Health Organization; and in the editorial boards of several specialty journals. He is a founder member of the Latin American Academy for the Medicine of Ageing (ALMA), and serves the profession in multiple forms including as member of review study sections of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. He is the founder professor and coordinator of the Academic Committee of the Geriatrics Specialty at the Institute of Medicine. He has served on the faculty of the National University of Mexico School of Medicine, since 1994 as head of the geriatric medicine specialty program. He has been a visiting professor at the European Academy for Medicine of Aging, the Shernrooke University in Canada, the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and the Grenoble University in France.

Dr. Gutierrez’s research agenda focuses on the epidemiology of aging and more specifically on frailty and dementia and the interface between both conditions. He has more than 200 publications among books and scientific papers. Among many awards, in 2013 he received the presidential medal of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics for his contributions related to aging, in particular in the areas of dementia and frailty.

Kyriakos S. Markides received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1976 from Louisiana State University. He is currently the Annie and John Gnitzinger Distinguished Professor of Aging and Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Markides is the Editor of the Journal of Aging and Health which he founded in 1989. He is the author or co-author of over 370 publications most of which are on aging and health issues in the Mexican American population as well as minority aging issues in general. His research has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 1980. He is currently Principal Investigator of the Hispanic EPESE (Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly), a longitudinal study of the health of older Mexican Americans from the five Southwestern states. Dr. Markides is credited with coining the term ‘Hispanic Epidemiological Paradox’ (with J. Coreil) which is currently the leading theme in Hispanic health.  The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has listed Dr. Markides among the most highly cited social scientists in the world. Dr. Markides is the 2006 recipient of the Distinguished Mentorship Award of the Gerontological Society of America, and the 2009 Distinguished Professor Award in Gerontology and Geriatrics from UCLA. He was also the inaugural recipient of the Pearmain Prize for outstanding service to the field of aging from the Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California. The prize was awarded in February, 2010.  He is the 2015 recipient of the Robert W. Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America for his contributions to research on aging.