Aging

As our population lives longer, the study of gerontology has become increasingly important in many fields including medicine, psychology, sociology, political science, and law. This can be seen by the increase in university programs, governmental bodies, political debate, organizations, literature and research devoted to aging.

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library's Aging web page links users to a small number of selected web sites that may be useful to both students and health care professionals interested in the field of aging.

Clearinghouses

• Indiana University's Center for Aging Research - Grants and Funding Information page was designed to assist researchers by providing links to grant-making organizations that fund research on aging and includes community, corporate, private and public organizations.
  
  
• Medweb is a catalog of biomedical and health-related web sites maintained by the staff of the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University. Links to specific age-related diseases can be found under Diseases and Conditions on the home page; geriatric links can be found under Specialties - Geriatrics.
  
  
• The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. NGC is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans. Use the Detailed Search feature and choose Geriatrics from the Clinical Specialty pull-down menu to find relevant guidelines.

• The Alzheimer's Association provides a glossary of terms related to the disease.
  
  
• The Merck Manual of Geriatrics is more than a glossary of terms. It provides extended information of clinical relevance on geriatric care. An index and search feature allow for easy access to terms. Links to Merck resources in other languages are available.

Government Agencies

• The Administration on Aging (AoA), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, supports a nationwide aging network, providing services to the elderly. The site includes links to state agencies on aging, statistical data, the Older Americans Act text and updates, elder abuse sites, links to other aging-related web sites and more. Also includes the Profile of Older Americans, an annual report that provides a variety of statistical data on older Americans including data on the current population and projected growth, marital status, living arrangements, racial and ethnic composition, geographic distribution, income, housing, employment, education and health. Presented in a summary format. Some information available in Spanish.
  
  
• The Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, provides evidence-based information on health care outcomes; quality; and cost, use, and access. Information from AHRQ's research helps people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services. Research abstracts and press releases on aging issues can be found by clicking on the browse feature and choosing Elderly Healthcare. Documents available in Spanish.
  
  
• AgingStats.Gov is the web site of the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics (the Forum). The Forum is made up of nine federal agencies that produce or use statistics on aging. The site includes the publication Older Americans 2000: Key Indicators of Well-Being, a report that covers 31 key indicators selected to portray aspects of the lives of older Americans and their families. The report is divided into five subject areas: population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. Links to the nine agencies' sites provided.
  
  
• The Maryland Department of Aging oversees the delivery of programs, services and benefits through Maryland's network of nineteen local Area Agencies on Aging. Information on demographics, housing, health, community services and senior centers in Maryland is available. Links to other aging sites provided.
  
  
• MEDLINEplus is the National Library of Medicine's consumer-oriented health site. Aging-related information can be found under Seniors' Health. Content includes newspaper articles, clinical trials, research, directories, organizations, statistics, dictionaries and more. Information available in Spanish and Chinese.
  
  
• The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is part of the National Institutes of Health. The site lists NIA funding opportunities, describes current research programs, contains reports and papers from conferences convened by NIA, provides a searchable database of images of putative biological pathways, macromolecular structures, gene families, and cellular relationships, and offers consumer information including a resource directory for organizations on aging. Links to other aging-related sites provided.
  
  
• The National Aging Information Center (NAIC), operated by the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), is a central source for program- and policy-related materials and demographic and other statistical data on the health, economic, and social status of older Americans. Topically-arranged links to other aging-related sites are available.
  
  
• The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is part of the Centers for Disease Control. Their Aging Activities section offers data on trends in health and aging, longitudinal studies on aging as well as statistics (Faststats A to Z) and information (Health Topics A to Z) on specific conditions related to the elderly. Click on the How to… link in the Trends in Health and Aging section for help with using the database.
  
  
• The Resource Directory for Older People put together by the Administration on Aging and the National Institute on Aging is intended to serve a wide audience including older people and their families, health and legal professionals, social service providers, librarians, researchers, and others with an interest in the field of aging. The directory contains names, addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers of organizations which provide information and other resources on matters relating to the needs of older persons.
  
  
• The US Census Bureau's Age Data section provides age-related statistical information at the national, state and county level, international numbers, and additional data on the Baby Boomers, 55+ and 65+ population.

• The Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center (ADEAR Center) is a service of the National Institute on Aging. The ADEAR Center provides information about Alzheimer's disease, its impact on families and health professionals, and research into possible causes and cures. The site contains fact sheets, research and technical reports, a quarterly newsletter, educational audio and video clips, a bibliographic database and a clinical trials database. Links to other federal resources are available.
  
  
• Although the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) site is geared toward consumer users, there are many full-text articles from AARP's Modern Maturity magazine as well as other publications. Main categories found at this site are computers and technology, health and wellness, legislative issues, leisure and fun, life transitions, money and work, research and reference, and the volunteer experience. Links to topic-related web sites included.
  
  
• The American Federation for Aging Research supports biomedical research in aging and geriatric medicine. Information and applications for research grants are available. Connect to their consumer-oriented infoaging.org site for research-based information on a wide range of age-related diseases, conditions, issues, features, and news. Links to other aging-related are sites available.
  
  
• The American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 20 is dedicated to studying the psychology of adult development and aging. The site offers a variety of resources, including information about the Division, resources for educators (e.g., syllabi, videotape listings), information about graduate programs for students interested in pursuing this field, publications summarizing recent knowledge about adult development and aging, current conference information, and many useful links. Connect to the APA's Committee on Aging - Publications section for access to select brochures and articles from APA journals on aging.
  
• The American Society on Aging is an association of diverse individuals bound by a common goal: to support the commitment and enhance the knowledge and skills of those who seek to improve the quality of life of older adults and their families. The membership of ASA is a multidisciplinary array of professionals who are concerned with the physical, emotional, social, economic and spiritual aspects of aging. They range from practitioners, educators, administrators, policymakers, business people, researchers, students, and more.
  
  
• Elderweb is a research site for both professionals and family members looking for information on eldercare and long term care, and includes links to information on legal, financial, medical, and housing issues, as well as policy, research, and statistics. The site includes over 6,000 links to articles, reports, news, events, organizations, government sites and more.
  
  
• HealthandAge.Com is the web site of the Novartis Foundation for Gerontology. The site is divided into three sections: physicians and researchers, other healthcare professionals and "you" (consumers). The site includes summaries of research publications relevant for practice, mini-sites dedicated to different experts in aging, grant and funding sources, a drug index, a book list, a chat room, current news in French, German and Spanish as well as English and links to other web sites.
  
  
• Gero-Ed Center this website aims to prepare social work faculty to respond to the demographic realities of our aging society. This Web site is the online resource for gerontologically-competent social work faculty, students, and practitioners.

• The Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging is a joint program of the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan with funding provided by the National Institute on Aging. The center focuses on the following scientific themes and approaches: health, work and retirement; interactions between health and economic status over time; health and economic status of diverse racial and ethnic populations; biodemography of aging; demography and economics of dementia; cohort analyses of current and future retirees; comparative international research; and the value of linked data and methods for ensuring confidentiality in research. Contains links to other statistical web sites including the Population Studies Center (PSC) at the University of Michigan and the nine other centers on the Demography of Aging established by the NIA.
  
  
• The National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) is located within the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and funded by the National Institute on Aging. NACDA's mission is to advance research on aging by helping researchers to profit from the under-exploited potential of a broad range of datasets. NACDA acquires and preserves data relevant to gerontological research, processing as needed to promote effective research use, disseminates them to researchers, and facilitates their use. The site contains a large number of datasets, although many are older. Useful for historical research. Some access restricted.

• Gerontology Programs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore is a composite site of education and training opportunities, centers and programs, web resources, faculty from the six schools of UMB and current information in the field of gerontology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Fellowship and training grants, a cross-disciplinary listing of geriatric courses, links to interdisciplinary entities such as the Center for Aging Research and the GGEAR Program, and the Advances in Aging newsletter are some of the links that can be found here.

Content posted: August 2007