UMass McCormack - John W. McCormack Graduate Schoolof Policy Studies

The Elder Economic Security Standard Project is a collaborative project with Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) to measure on a geographically specific basis the income elders need to live modestly in their communities. The goal of the Elder Standard Project is to enable policy makers, aging advocates and others develop policies and programs to help seniors age with dignity while promoting their economic independence.

Principal Investigator: Ellen Bruce and Jan Mutchler Project Director: Laura Henze Russell

Sponsor: contract with Wider Opportunities for Women (Atlantic Philanthropies and Retirement Research Foundation)

Funding: possibly up to $1 million over 5 years

Previous sponsors: The Boston Foundation, Farnsworth Foundation, and a public service grant from UMass Boston.

Reports related to the project:

On the Edge: Facing a Challenging and Uncertain Future. Elder Economic Security Standard™ for the Boston Area. Laura Henze Russell, Ellen A. Bruce, and Judith Conahan. Wider Opportunities for Women. See the Wider Opportunities for Women website: http://www.wowonline.org/ourprograms/eesi/index.asp

Elder Economic Security Initiative: The Elder Economic Security Standard™ for Massachusetts. Laura Henze Russell, Ellen A. Bruce, and Judith Conahan. Wider Opportunities for Women. See the Wider Opportunities for Women website for links to Elder Economic Security Initiatives for other states for which the Standard™ has been published: http://www.wowonline.org/ourprograms/eesi/index.asp

National Pension Lawyers Network

NPLN is an ongoing referral service for people with pension problems throughout the country who are looking for attorneys to represent them.

Project Directors: Ellen A. Bruce. and Jeanne Medeiros

Sponsor: Contract with the Pension Rights Center

Funding: $20,000

Project timeline: ongoing

New England Pension Assistance Project

NEPAP is an ongoing service project funded from a variety of sources, the primary one being the U.S. Administration on Aging. The purpose of the project is to assist and educate individuals about their benefits and rights to retirement income. A secondary purpose is to identify issues affecting pension plan participants. The project has served over 4250 people in New England and recovered over $30 million in its 15 years of operation.

Principal Investigator: Ellen A. Bruce. Legal Coordinator: Jeanne Medeiros,

Sponsors and Yearly Funding:

U.S. Administration on Aging ($157,000);

Boston Bar Foundation (10,000)

Massachusetts Bar Foundation ($15,000);

Massachusetts Secretary of State ($10,000).

Program timeline: ongoing

Methods of Increasing 401(k) Participation

This project is to gather all current research on automatic enrollment policies and analyze them in light of participation and leakage data to determine the likelihood that low-income workers will benefit from an automatic enrollment policy.

Principal Investigator: Ellen A. Bruce

Language, Ethnic Community and Older Immigrant Households. Funded by National Institute on Aging. (Grant #R01 AG218690). 9/04-8/08. Co-investigator (with J.Mutchler). $377,438. This project examines the ways in which older immigrants are enmeshed in households and communities in the U.S.

Principal Investigator: Jeff Burr

Residential Options/Home and Community-Based Long-Term Care

Frank Caro, Fellow

frank.caro@umb.edu

(617) 287-7307

Project: Residential Choices: Vignette Methods. Funded by the National Institute on Aging

2 years; estimated funding $80,000.

The project is developing hypothetical choice and vignette experiments that will provide the data required for the identification and estimation of econometric models for the joint analysis of diverse variables on health-related decisions of older people. The project is exploring the use of colorful, interactive vignette methods, adapting market research tools to accelerate information acquisition and monitor the information-gathering process, and testing the role of framing, context, and affect on judgments. The vehicle for this investigation is information-seeking on alternative living arrangements by elders in failing health.

Subcontract from the University of Michigan

Principal Investigator: Daniel McFadden (UC Berkeley)

Co-PI: Frank Caro,

Co-PI: Teck Ho (UC Berkeley)

Productive Aging, Older Workers, Volunteering

Jeffrey Burr

jeffrey.burr@umb.edu

(617) 287-7318

Frank Caro

frank.caro@umb.edu

(617) 287-7307

Project: Activity Motivation among Elders

Unfunded

The project is using survey methods to examine the motivational underpinnings of a variety of activities among older people. Paid employment, volunteering, education, exercise, and hobbies are among the activities being examined. Of particular interest is the extent to which there are motives that are common to more than one form of activity.

Principal Investigator: Frank Caro

Measuring the Effect of Aging on Perceptions and Behavior

The purpose of this project is to advance methods for collecting and analyzing data on perceptions, behavior, and well-being, and their variation across individuals and with age. At a broad, integrative level, the project proposes to organize an interdisciplinary network of scholars who are studying perception and decision processes, and their measurement in economic and health surveys. Within this network, the project will encourage the synthesis and extension of cognitive, experimental, and statistical results that can improve the accuracy of survey data in studies of aging and identify casual effects. The project includes researchers at the University of California Berkeley, University of Munich, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and UMass Boston. The UMB Gerontology Institute is involved with a component concerned with the use of factorial survey methods to measure the normative underpinnings of public policy. The substantive emphasis in the UMB component is on residential choices of elders. We hope to develop a web site that provides interactive information for elders and their families on residential options of elders who are dealing with a range of issues ranging from downsizing to long-term care. Within that web site, we plan to conduct experiments on use of vignette techniques to understand residential preferences of elders. As a first step, qualitative research is being conducted on residential planning among elders in the Boston area. The pilot research funds have also been used to conduct secondary analysis of data on the association of subjective probabilities on longevity and need for long-term care with the purchase of long-term care insurance.

Principal Investigator: Daniel McFadden, University of California Berkeley

Co-PI: Frank Caro

Sponsor: National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Retirement Spending and Changing Needs during the Retirement Period.

This Project discusses the policy implications of retirement spending patterns and changing needs furing the retirement period. Using Health and Retirement Study-Consumptions and Activities Mail Survey (HRS-CAMS) data, I would (a) observe spending patterns and changing needs during retirement by different categories of older people, by age, marital status, geographical area, and race and ethnicity, (b) examine the factors involved in changes in consumption patterns over the course of retirement, and then (c) discuss the policy implications of these observed changes for long-term care insurance and reverse mortgages.

Principal Investigator: Yung.-Ping. Chen

Transitions to Residential Care among People with Multiple Sclerosis: Decision Making, Preferences and Needs

This project is intended to better understand the needs, concerns and preferences of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who move to supportive residential care. Studies estimate that up to 10% of people with MS eventually live in some type of group care facility because of advanced disability. However, typical nursing homes are designed for the care of elderly people and may not be appropriate for younger people with disabilities. Through qualitative interviews of people with MS who are actively considering residential options or who have recently moved to a nursing home or assisted living, the study will explore the process by which people consider and choose a residential facility, including available information and options, facility characteristics (amenities, services), and financing options. Through survey questioniares, the study will examine personal characteristics (physical disability, social support, financial resources) associated with choosing assisted living versus nursing homes. Interviews with nursing home and assisted living administrators will examine experience serving residents with MS. The study will generate indications of the kinds of issues; financial, social, psychological and medical that will require more attention in order to expand supportive housing options for people with Multiple Sclerosis.

Principal Investigators: Alison Gottlieb, Joan Hyde

Sponsor: National Multiple Sclerosis Society

$44,000

Center for Interdisciplinary Geriatric Health Care Research. Funded by Hartford/RAND Foundation. 10/06-9/08. Co-investigator (with J. Gurwitz, Geriatric Medicine, U of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, and K. Miller, Graduate School of Nursing U of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester). $200,000. This project is designed to strengthen and support interdisciplinary health care research and training, and promote collaboration between Geriatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston campus.

Principal Investigator: Jan Mutchler

Language, Ethnic Community and Older Immigrant Households. Funded by National Institute on Aging. (Grant #R01 AG218690). 9/04-8/08. Co-investigator (with J. Burr). $377,438. This project examines the ways in which older immigrants are enmeshed in households and communities in the U.S.

Principal Investigator: Jan Mutchler

Demography of Aging in Massachusetts. As part of my responsibilities as Associate Director for Social and Demographic Research of the Gerontology Institute, I prepare demographic materials relating to the aging population of Massachusetts, which are released on the Gerontology Institute web page. I respond to inquiries about the demographic composition of the older population from news organizations, legislative staff, and others.

Principal Investigator: Jan Mutchler

The Older Population in Massachusetts (electronic).

This series of web pages presents demographic information about the older population in the state, focusing on economic security, family and household characteristics, and other compositional features. See the Demographics of Elders in Massachusetts web site:

http://www.geront.umb.edu/inst/projects/demographics.jsp

Principal Investigator: Jan Mutchler

Fitness to Drive in Early Stage Dementia: An Instrumented Vehicle Study (co-Investigator with UMTRI and UH) 2006-2009 subcontract from University of Michigan with funding from the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (currently have 2 subcontracts totaling 35K with one more pending)

This study is comparing driving assessment modes (self, family, and occupational therapist/driving rehab specialist) with naturalistic driving through instrumentation of the driver’s own vehicle developed to measure impairments in critical driving behaviors associated with dementia.

Principal Investigator: Nina Silverstein

Intergenerational Support Structures and Pathways

With the aging of the population, the number of individuals requiring care is expected to increase dramatically during the next decades. Elder care puts considerable burden and strain on the caregiver. Many family caregivers thus require support by others, often other family members. Indeed, data from a recent national survey indicate that 73% of all family caregivers received assistance from other family members, suggesting that care is best understood as family system effort. Although past research provides a glimpse at the composition of family care systems, the coordination and shifting of responsibilities among family members and of changes in their involvement (e.g., care hours) remain poorly understood. One premise of our project is that the viability of family care systems is contingent on their flexibility, that is, their ability to restructure in response to the ever-changing needs and demands of caregivers and care recipients. A second premise is that caregiving must be understood as a career, of variable duration, with distinct transition points, and that the predictors of caregiver involvement at early stages may therefore differ from those of caregiver involvement at later stages of a relative’s illness. Both the flexibility of care systems and changes in caregiver involvement over time are further expected to have consequences for caregivers, care recipients, and use of formal services or nursing home placement. The main aim of this project is to assess changes in family care systems over time, to examine the predictors of such changes both at the level of the caregiver and of the care system as a whole, and to investigate the impact of such changes on selected outcomes, including well-being of the caregivers and care recipients, the extent of unmet care needs, the use of formal services, and nursing home placement. Our analyses will rely on data from the Health and Retirement and Assets and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old surveys and rely on statistical methods that are appropriate for multi-level data with endogenous and censored variables from complex surveys. Our results can inform policies and programs designed to enhance the care systems of frail and cognitively impaired elders as well as policies and programs targeting the well-being of families and caregivers. They also speak to the future availability of family caregivers in response to changing family structures and caregiving requirements.

Principal Investigator: Maximiliane E. Szinovacz Sponsor: National Institute of Aging (NIA).

Marriage, Families, and Retirement

This project has three main objectives. First, it aims to identify the entire retirement processes of individuals and couples, defined by labor force exits and reentries, Social Security and pension receipt, and retiree self definitions. Second, it assesses the effects of choice (disability, job displacement, caregiving, spouse control), instrumental, and cognitive utilities (reflecting social, couple, family and personal expectations about the timing of the retirement transition) on retirement transition processes. The third objective is to assess the outcomes (retirement plan implementation, benefit optimization, retirement satisfaction, change in income, food security, depressive symptoms, health risk behaviors, self-rated health, health insurance coverage, and life expectations) of specific retirement transition processes for individuals and couples. The analyses will rely on secondary analyses of the Health and Retirement Survey (waves1992-2004). Main analyses techniques employed will include multistate life tables, regression techniques for censored data and interdependent observations (couples), structural equation modeling, and general estimation procedures. The project has important health-related outcomes. It will demonstrate to what extent health limitations preclude choice over retirement transitions and whether such limited choice significantly reduces retirement benefits as well as emotional and physical well-being and access to health insurance. The project will further assess whether negative outcomes of initial retirement transitions can be reduced through subsequent processes such as reentry into the labor force. In addition to its importance for health-related outcomes, the project also provides theoretical and methodological contributions to the retirement literature. Major innovations include the identification of retirement processes, the emphasis on control and cognitive utility, the measurement of post-retirement financial well-being in terms of the difference between actual and optimal benefits, and the assessment of cross-spouse influences and outcomes.Principal investigator: Maximiliane E. Szinovacz Sponsor: National Institute of Aging (NIA)

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