This conference brought together researchers for two days to share research findings and methodological experiences regarding the interplay of the dynamics of biological factors in cognitive and related outcomes, and associated physiological changes that are linked to cognitive aging, including sensory and disease-related changes.

In attendance were an outstanding group of researchers doing work in these areas, across several disciplines—biology, epidemiology, demography, developmental psychology, gerontology, neuropsychology, and sociology—to help us focus on how best to measure these processes and model relevant data in ways that sort out aggregate population trends and individual-level age-related changes in health and cognitive functioning.

Please view our 2009 Conference Program for information about presentations and participants.

The conference was co-organized in collaboration with demographers from the University of Texas at Austin, Population Research Center, and cognitive aging researchers from the University of Victoria, Canada, and social science researchers at Penn State University. Funding for this conference came primarily from the National Institutes on Aging via the Center on Population Health & Aging (PI: Alwin) and the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative via Healthspan in Longitudinal Studies of Aging (PI: Hofer), as well as Penn State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Victoria.

The papers presented at this conference were published as a supplement to The Journal of Gerontology—Psychological and Social Sciences, Series B, Volume 66, July 2011. Download the introduction to this supplementary issue of the Journal of Gerontology, titled “Health and Cognition in Aging Research“.