Sarah Patterson
University of Michigan, MI·Social Science·Early-career
Most care for older Americans comes from family members and other unpaid caregivers. People living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) need more help over time and often rely on several caregivers.
- Fields
Social Science
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
family caregiving
unpaid caregivers
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Determine under what circumstances complex family and kinship ties, including step, legal, biological and voluntary kin, provide care, and how this differs for older adults living with ADRD.
- Design, field and analyze web survey modules on multiple national surveys to test measures of kinship ties, caregiving norms and care behavior among caregivers, older adults and the public.
- Link the family and kinship ties available to people with dementia, and the care those ties provide, to unmet care needs in this population.
- Host research conferences, lectures and media training through the MiCDA Communication and Dissemination Core to share research on late-life disability, dementia and caregiving.
More about the research
At the same time, families have grown more complex, with more step-relatives, unmarried partners and chosen or 'voluntary' kin. Little is known about when these varied ties actually provide care. The work combines a survey-measurement project on this question with a center core that shares aging research more widely.
Why it matters
Gaps in family care may be especially large for older adults with dementia who live in complex families. Better measures of kinship ties, caregiving norms and care given could help researchers and policymakers find where care needs go unmet. These measures could inform support for dementia caregivers and families. The center core aims to get aging-demography findings to wider audiences.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Hancock
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Develop and refine candidate items for the EM-AD, a new measure of elder mistreatment tailored to dementia family caregivers, using feedback from caregivers and geriatric professionals to establish that the items cover the right content.
Manka Nkimbeng
University of Minnesota, MN·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Explore the experiences and care strategies of high-risk New American older adults with dementia and their informal family caregivers.
Chandra L Muller
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Social Science
Estimate how much high school experiences, such as advanced coursework, grades and degrees, shape cognitive, blood-based and behavioral markers of dementia risk at age 70 in the NLS-72 cohort.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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