Social, Medical, and Economic Demography of Aging Training Program

The purpose of this predoctoral and postdoctoral research training program is to provide rigorous training in the general fields of social, medical, and economic demography of aging. A major focus is placed on five substantive areas: a) the health and functioning of minority elderly; b) international comparative studies of the health of older populations in both developed and developing countries; c) the medical demography of the oldest old; d) important life course transitions (e.g., family changes, work and retirement, morbidity and disability) that relate to the health and well-being of aging persons; and e) the economics of aging and long-term care. These areas require a core of researchers with doctoral and postdoctoral training who are skilled in state-of-the-art analytic methods and population modeling. Predoctoral training is carried on with the full collaboration of the graduate training programs of the Departments of Sociology and Economics, in which doctorates are awarded. The training takes place in the Departments, the Center for Demographic Studies, the Center for Health Policy/Law and Management, and the Center for Studies of Aging and Human Development.

Normally, three to six Sociology graduate students are demography of aging predoctoral trainees in any given year. The normal term of appointment is four to five years for students who enter with B.A. degrees, with appointments made through to the completion of the doctoral dissertation. Sociology trainees must fulfill all theory and methods requirements of a Ph.D. in sociology. In addition, Sociology trainees must take required courses in the demography of aging and in demographic models and methods and the doctoral qualifying exam in population studies.

At the postdoctoral level, two persons with a Ph.D. or equivalent degree are appointed each year. These postdoctoral fellows typically are recruited with varied levels of experience in sociology, demography, economics, and statistics for two-year periods of training. They gain first-hand experience under direct supervision of faculty preceptors on major ongoing research projects. They also are provided the opportunity of taking appropriate courses to obtain advanced training knowledge in needed methodological and substantive areas.

The training program maintains an ongoing Workshop on Demography, Life Course, and Aging that all trainees are expected to attend. The Workshop meets each week during the academic year, with presentations of research by visitors from other universities and research institutions as well as by Duke faculty members, research scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students.

The training program is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health and administered through the Center for Demographic Studies, an independent research and training organization of Duke University. Professor Kenneth C. Land is overall Director of the training program, Professor Angela M. O'Rand is Director of training for pre-doctoral trainees and Professor Kenneth G. Manton is Director of training for post-doctoral fellows.