Aging in Precarious Place: Building Resilience Among Older Adults Living in Environmentally Vulnerable Areas - PROJECT SUMMARY
Acute disasters like hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires, as well as gradual-onset environmental
events like sea level rise and coastal erosion, are growing in frequency and severity. These events
disproportionately affect the health and well-being of older adults (65+) due to chronic health conditions,
cognitive limitations, and depleted social networks. Across all age groups, older adults are the least likely to be
prepared for disasters, are the most at-risk during all phases of a disaster (e.g., mitigation, preparedness;
response; recovery) and, they have the highest rate of disaster-related deaths. In addition to increasing the
morbidity and mortality of older adults, disaster exposure can also disrupt the ability of community-dwelling
older adults to successfully age. Despite their vulnerability, disaster resilience interventions and activities are
not usually tailored for community-dwelling older adults. The rapidly growing older adult population—along with
the mounting risk of disasters—makes it imperative to understand the factors that influence older adult
resilience in the context of disasters (e.g., disaster resilience) and how this adaptive process can be nurtured
to promote successful aging (SA). The main research objective of this career development award is to
generate data that will inform future R-level awards, led by the candidate, that address resilience-building
strategies to promote SA, despite growing disaster risk. This proposed research aims to promote successful
aging by identifying the factors that increase the disaster resilience of community-dwelling older adults, and
subsequently leveraging these factors in the design and piloting of an intervention for those aging in disaster-
prone areas. We hypothesize that a direct relationship between disaster exposure and SA can be mediated by
increased disaster resilience. To test this hypothesis, the broad goals of this project are to (1) test a conceptual
model that theorizes the relationship among disaster exposure, individual disaster resilience and SA; (2)
identify the factors that contribute to disaster resilience among older adults with qualitative data; and (3) design
and pilot an intergenerational intervention that aims to increase disaster resilience among community-dwelling
older adults. The main training objective of this CDA is to provide the PI with skills in (1) advanced quantitative
methods; and (2) intervention science. The mentoring team includes an exceptional multidisciplinary group of
scholars with expertise in intervention design and implementation; social gerontology; public health disaster
science; resilience theory; and biostatistics. To accomplish these goals, the PI and mentoring team have co-
designed a training plan with didactic, mentored, and experiential learning that will provide the PI with
dedicated time to focus on research, dissemination of findings, and the collection of pilot data to inform future
research. With mentorship from her team of senior researchers, additional coursework, and applied
experience, the PI will be able to transition into a successful independent researcher who can effectively bridge
gerontology, public health disaster science, and intervention science.
