Dissemination of research that informs policy and practice locally, regionally and globally to improve the lives.
Research Projects
Testing Savvy Caregiver in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Sample in Southern California
The project goal is to compare the relative efficacy-effectiveness of two dementia caregiver interventions, Savvy Caregiver Express™ and Savvy Caregiver program on primary (affective status, and reactivity to behaviors), and secondary outcomes (competence, meaning, management, other coping resources, social support, etc.) with a diverse racial and ethnic sample of caregivers to persons with dementia (PWD).
You can learn more about this project at roybal.usc.edu/socalcaregiver.
Research Team
Research Period: 04/01/2020 - 06/30/2022
Funding Source: State of California Department of Public Health Alzheimer's Disease Program
Interdisciplinary Aging Research to Address Health Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
This conference series will (1) address environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias that affect millions of older minorities and their family caregivers; and (2) serve as an incubator of scientific network of interdisciplinary scholars specializing in rigorous team- based approaches to close the ADRD health disparities gap.
Research Team
Research Period: 04/01/2019 - 03/31/2021
Funding Source: National Institute on Aging
USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement (ORE) Core
The ORE (Outreach, Recruitment and Education) core is responsible for providing important liaison and outreach between the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and patients, their caregivers and the professional community so that information may be communicated bi-directionally. The ORE Core works closely with the Clinical Core to recruit and retain participants in research studies, and to educate the professional and underserved communities about improving cognitive health and reducing AD and vascular risk factors. The major research initiatives include the Vascular Cohort Study and clinical trials. The ORE Core has a strong presence in the Latino community.
Research Team
Helping Carers to Care (HC2C)
Developed with Peking University’s Institute of Mental Health, the initiative facilitates the development, implementation and evaluation of training models in Beijing for caregivers of individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Research Team
Research Period: Ongoing
USC Alzheimer's Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR)
The USC RCMAR is housed in the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, which brings together 40 health policy experts across the university—including faculty from Gerontology, Engineering, Law, Public Policy, Pharmacy, Medicine, and Arts & Letters. This proposed RCMAR will utilize the resources of multiple National Institute on Aging funded centers including USC’s Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation, USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Roybal Center for Financial Decision Making and Financial Independence in Old Age, Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Center for the Study of Health Inequality, USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health; and other USC Centers including the Brookings Institute and Schaeffer Initiative and the Center for Economic and Social Research.
Our focus will be Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. The origins of racial and ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s disease are multifaceted. Our goals are to identify racial and ethnic differences in risk, diagnosis and treatment and, once identified, elucidate opportunities for potential AD prevention and treatment regimens across diverse populations. The USC RCMAR will take advantage of several key assets at the USC Schaeffer Center.
Research Team
Research Period: 9/1/2012–6/30/2023
Funding Source: National Institute on Aging
BrainWorks: A Comparative Effectiveness Trial to Examine Text Message-Based Alzheimer's Disease Education for Community-Dwelling African Americans
The purpose of the proposed randomized comparative effectiveness trial is to compare the effectiveness of different approaches to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) education on AD knowledge and research attitudes. We will randomize 150 community-dwelling African American adults (ages 60-85) to either an AD outreach and education program with text messages tailored to African Americans (tailored texts), text messages that the general population would receive (general texts), or a control group. The primary outcome will be change in knowledge about AD and research attitudes over 6 months. Our long-term objective is to increase African American participation in AD prevention research.
Research Team
Research Period: 2/1/2017-3/31/2018
Funding Source: Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI)
Programa Esperanza (Project Hope)
The primary aim of the study is to test the comparative effectiveness of Programa Esperanza (Project Hope) and enhanced usual care (EUC). Programa Esperanza is a short-term, culturally modified psychosocial intervention for Spanish-speaking Latino patients 55 years of age or older with depression and multiple medical conditions. Our long-term goal is to widely disseminate the results and actionable steps needed to increase the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based behavioral health practices for low-income, Limited-English-speaking geriatric populations.
Research Team
Research Period: 1/1/2015–06/30/2019
Funding Source: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) Workforce Development Core
The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) is a multi-faceted research institute created by the University of Southern California (USC) and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) to translate scientific discoveries into solutions for better health. This core group provides expertise in education, training and career development with special focus on research in diverse populations. It has a broad target audience that includes not only career clinical researchers, but also clinicians, research staff, clinical and community partners, and patients.
Research Team
Research Period: 7/1/2016–12/31/2017
Funding Source: USC Keck School of Medicine (NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences)
Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program in Taiwan
To understand the potential of mobile computing technology to improve quality of life and health outcomes of older adults with disabilities, an intervention is needed to motivate and train seniors to use the technology. Thus, this proposed 3-year demonstration and research project aims to develop, test, and evaluate an innovative program, Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (IMTOP), to help older adults with disabilities use mobile devices by interacting with younger-generation trainers, which has the potential to improve the quality of life for both groups. IMTOP aims to provide mobile technology training, access, and support to adults (aged 50 and above) with disabilities in Taiwan for their self-care and self-help to improve their quality of life. The program will help participants acquire skills to use the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), applications (or “apps”), and basic computing via mobile tablet devices. These skills will give participants access to resources and tools to promote good health and prevent disease, manage personal finances and daily activities, reduce social isolation, and increase social engagement, as well as meet their individual life goals.
Research Team
Advocates for African American Elders: Coordinated Care Initiative Events
Using an innovative outreach and education model, the purpose of the events are to educate older adults about California’s Coordinated Care Initiative, an Affordable Care Act program that attempts to coordinate the delivery of Medicare and Medi-Cal health benefits into a single system for those eligible for both with the goal of improving the integration of all forms of care.
Research Team
Research Period: 2/2015 – 8/2015
Funding Source: The SCAN Foundation
A Helping Hand to Activate Patient-Centered Depression Care among Low-Income Patients (AHH)
The study aims to improve patient self-care management and patient-provider care management relationships among underserved low-income patients, who must simultaneously cope with major depression and chronic co-morbid physical illness. Some participants will be randomly selected to receive typical clinical services, while others will participate in a program in which community members, who are trained to provide basic health education, offer training and advice. Findings will determine whether community health worker promotora care management training improves patient-centered outcomes, such as self-care need and management, treatment adherence, symptom improvement, and care satisfaction over the usual team care.
Research Team
Research Period: 10/2013 – 12/2017
Funding Source: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
A Program for Families Caring for a Loved One with Dementia (SAVVY Caregiver Program)
This is a comparative cluster-randomized pilot to compare the relative feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of implementing the original and modified version of the Savvy Caregiver Program (SCP) in community-based settings. SCP is a structured, group-administered intervention for adult family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease or associated dementias.
Research Team
Research Period: 12/2015 – 6/2016
Funding Source: USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work Research Council
Transition Coaching for Latino Diabetics
The project sought to develop a program aimed at improving self-management behaviors and skills for hospitalized Latino diabetics age 50 and over who were leaving the hospital for home. To date, no programs of this type has focused specifically on this group of diabetics. Participants in the program received help from a diabetes-trained coach who was also Latino and bilingual. The project sought to improve treatment of diabetes, specifically aiming at improving adherence to care, continuity of care and patient self-management skills.
Research Team
Research Period: 1/2009 - 12/2011
Funding Source: American Diabetes Association
Toward a Better Understanding of Elder Mistreatment in Community Settings
The purpose of the study was to inform the NIA about the issues involved with conducting a national incidence or prevalence study of elder mistreatment. The study focused on community-residing elders to examine approaches to detecting and measuring mistreatment across five domains: physical assault, psychological aggression, sexual coercion, caregiver neglect and financial exploitation. The ultimate goal was to inform the field on reliable approaches to identifying elder mistreatment.
Research Team
Research Period: 9/2007 - 8/2009
Funding Source: National Institute on Aging (NIA); Grant ID: R21 AG030661
Breast Cancer Media & Training Campaign for Hispanic Women
The purpose of the project was to educate Latino women on the importance of breast cancer screenings through a national media campaign that targeted more than 83 Spanish-language television stations across the United States.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/AARP
Adult Immunization Project: Immunization Program Translation
The primary goal of the project was to increase the knowledge base of health care providers in order to improve vaccination rates among older adults, particularly those from ethnic communities.
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Unihealth Foundation
Live Well, Live Long: Steps to Better Health
The ASA and the USC Roybal Institute entered into a collaborative agreement with the CDC to develop a model Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) national campaign. The ultimate goal of the project was to provide guidance and tools for the staff of organizations that provided services to older adults. The tools were designed to facilitate outreach efforts, the dissemination of information, the delivery of service and the training of staff. The tools also were designed to provide a better understanding of the changing health and social service needs of an aging and more diverse population. Special emphasis was given to developing strategies targeting racial and ethnic communities and rural areas.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Family Caregiver Training Program
The program, which was developed by the USC Roybal Institute, offered free one-hour sessions on a range of topics for caregivers in the city of Los Angeles. Among the topics discussed were housing options, medication management, and fall and injury prevention. These sessions were made available to working caregivers on-site during their lunch hour or other designated in-services at employer sites. The target audiences for the program were individuals who were caring for someone over the age of 60 and individuals over the age of 60 who were caring for someone age 18 or under.
Information from topic sessions was incorporated into caregiving trainings through the Department of Water and Power (DWP), the Hollywood and Theresea Lindsay Senior Center, the City of Los Angeles Department of Human Resources, Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) and a variety of other settings for more than 3,000 caregivers.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Los Angeles City Department of Aging
Family Caregiver Training Program: Caregiver Program Translation
The USC Roybal Institute collaborated with Beverly Hospital to develop and implement a caregiver intervention program. The goal was to lessen the negative health and mental health impacts of caregiving by creating multilingual training modules and other education materials to assist caregivers and those who they cared for.
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Beverly Hospital
Family Caregiver Training Program: Caregiver Program Translation
The USC Roybal Institute collaborated with the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center of California to translate findings from its clinical research trials into practice in the community. This was accomplished through a local community-based consortium of organizations providing services to Alzheimer’s patients.
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Los Angeles Alzheimer's Research Center of California
Injuries in the Elderly
The project was a collaborative effort between the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at UCLA and the USC Roybal Institute. The goal of the intervention was to reduce the rate of falls and fall injuries among older adults in East Los Angeles. In order to achieve this objective, home-safety assessments were conducted and an education package was created to promote fall prevention efforts in the community.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Physical Activity Promotional Campaign for Elderly Hispanic Women
The USC Roybal Institute’s bilingual (i.e., Spanish and English) physical activity guide for older adults was used by individuals, agencies and organizations as part of an intervention to improve physical condition and reduce injuries. The guide was distributed locally and nationally to organizations serving older individuals.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC)/National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations (COSSMHO)
Replication and Dissemination of Effective Breast and Cervical Cancer Health Education Interventions
The goal of the project was to enhance the capacity of a national network of community, migrant and homeless health centers to increase the number of early detection screenings for breast and cervical cancer for Latinas age 50 and over. Among the objectives was to increase the knowledge of breast and cervical cancer screenings and the utilization rates of mammograms and Pap tests among Latinas. The staffs of various health centers were trained on how to reach out to community organizations and leaders who were also concerned about the health of Latinas.
One of the key components of the initiative was the establishment of a community consortium composed of community leaders, public and private health-care providers, private industry, academic researchers and consumers that met to address the problem of low screening rates among Latino women over the age of 50 in the community.
Research Team
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Association for Community Health Centers (NACHAC)
Unintentional Injury Prevention Among Older Adults
The goal of the project was to develop and distribute educational materials to help reduce the incidence of falls among older adults by providing a training manual and educational material for service providers in Los Angeles County. A total of 13 informational sessions were also conducted for health care providers, the aging service network, agencies, organizations, institutions, caregivers and their families, volunteers and other interested individuals at locations across the county.
Staff members on the project worked with AltaMed to integrate the fall and injury prevention community service model into the agency’s existing services, which helped to reduce reported fall rates from 12% to 3% over a four- to six-month period. The training manual and related education materials were also adopted by three health service providers in aging service delivery that were contracted and funded by the Los Angeles City Department of Aging.
Research Team
Research Period: Completed
Funding Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM)