To address the needs of the rapidly growing population of older adults, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has issued a Healthy Aging Targeted Funding Announcement (PFA) to support clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies addressing different stages of aging. Of particular interest are patient-centered CER projects that focus on older adults experiencing vision or hearing loss associated with aging. The PFA seeks to support “high-quality, comparative clinical effectiveness studies (CER) projects that focus on optimizing physical and mental functioning for community-dwelling older adults and their caregivers.” Most older adults, PCORI notes, prefer to stay in their own homes and communities, “aging in place” for as long as possible. As needs increase, family members and friends often serve as the primary caregiver by addressing the care needs of older adults and “helping them navigate a fragmented health care system.” Caregiving also intensifies as needs become more complex, which impacts the well being of the caregiver. The current health care system is not well prepared to address the full range of care needs for the “rapidly growing and diverse older adult population in the United States.” This PFA seeks applications for CER studies aiming to achieve one or more of these four goals:
– The main goal: maintaining function and independence’
– Helping the management of chronic disease;
– Supporting people with functional impairment (physical and/or cognitive); and
– Reducing the caregiving burden and improving the quality of life of caregivers.
Applicants need to focus special attention on issues related to intervention and implementation to facilitate “widespread uptake of findings after completion of the study.” For more information, read the PCORI webpage announcement regarding Healthy Aging: Optimizing Physical and Mental Functioning Across the Aging Continuum.
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