Kim Korinek from the University of Utah’s Department of Sociology and Asian Studies Program will present findings from a collaborative study about the associations between exposure to war and trauma and cardiovascular health conditions among Vietnamese older adults. In this research, Korinek seeks to better understand the association between early life exposure to war and trauma and older adult health status. Korinek finds that military service and war trauma are important determinants of older adult health, beyond the U.S. context, given the widespread waging of war and concentration of recent armed conflicts within developing societies.

The Population Health Initiative and CSDE will partner again for a second Applied Research Fellowship program.  CSDE Research Scientist and Acting Assistant Professor of Sociology Christine Leibbrand will direct the 10-weeks summer program will provide new population projections and insights to King County’s demographer and Public Health Seattle & King County’s Assessment, Policy Development Evaluation Unit.  The interdisciplinary team of students includes Steven Bao (undergraduate in Geography and Germanics), Eileen Kazura (masters student in Public Health), Jessica Lapham (doctoral student in Social Work), Priya Sarma (undergraduate in Biochemistry), and Crystal Yu (doctoral student in Sociology). CSDE Trainee Neal Marquez (doctoral student in Sociology) will provide supporting direction to Christine Leibbrand.

The Mather Institute awarded a 2020 bronze award to CSDE Affiliate Clara Berridge, Julie Lima, Margot Schwartz, Christine Bishop and Susan Miller (Brown University) for their 2020 publication in JAMDA, “Leadership, Staff Empowerment, and the Retention of Nursing Assistants: Findings From a Survey of U.S. Nursing Homes.”  The study team has donated the award money to the Pike Market Senior Center. A description of the study will be featured in a brief report written for a senior living audience, highlighting key findings and implications for operations. Click below to see a summary of the team’s findings.

Summary of findings: Nursing assistant (NA) retention is a critical, universal issue. Attempts to empower NAs and to transition away from a top-down management approach represent disruptions to the status quo. It is important to know whether implementing these strategies is meaningful and contribute to NA stability or whether they are counterproductive given the possibility of resistance to change. This study used a nationally representative nursing home survey to thoroughly examine whether practices focused on leadership and empowering NAs are associated with retention. Data are from the nationally representative Nursing Home Culture Change 2016-2017 Survey of nursing home administrators merged with facility-level indicators. Our analysis includes 1,513 nursing homes. The 23 items capture 2-way communication, staff involvement in decision making, staff education and training, respect for workers, positive leadership-staff relationships, and coaching, as well as NA involvement and participation in care planning, independence, and practices that communicate that their care role is valued. We found that the leadership and staff empowerment level was the factor in our model most significantly associated with high NA retention. Nursing homes with a high level of leadership and staff empowerment practices had a 6-fold increase in the likelihood of being in the highest relative to lowest retention category. Our study findings strongly support the notion that interventions focusing on improving leadership and staff empowerment practices may help retain NA staff.

CSDE Affiliate Kam Wing Chan research about urbanization and migration was featured in a recent article in The Straits Times . The Straits Times quotes Chan, “The hukou system brings about social discrimination and exclusion that have become a major obstacle to China becoming a modern nation and global leader.” By featuring Chan’s research about the Hukou system, this news article demonstrates how lifting hukou restrictions for migrant workers will limit the social discrimination and cushion the slowing economic growth resulting from Covid-19.

The Population Health Initiative has released a new funding call to support the university’s research community in responding to the array of economic-related challenges created by the pandemic. This round is intended to complement our earlier call for COVID-19 rapid response grants.  Awards of up to $20,000 each are available for projects proposing novel research designed to better understand, mitigate, or reverse the economic impact of COVID-19 on multiple facets of life.  We are interested in ideas that will either (1) quickly bring to bear new knowledge, or (2) that will allow work on a larger, longer-term project to begin immediately while the research team seeks the necessary external funding for the larger endeavor. CSDE is happy to provide in-kind resources as part of a match for interested faculty or research scientists submitting applications.  Please use CSDE’s online seed grant portal to make your requests. If you have questions, please contact Steve Goodreau (goodreau@uw.edu ).  Additional information about the PHI award can be found at: https://www.washington.edu/populationhealth/covid-19/covid-19-economic-recovery-research-grants/. Note the quick turnaround (i.e., May 31 deadline to apply).

PAA co-chairs Eileen Crimmins and Sara Curran will continue the PAA 2020 throughout the year.  This event will feature demographers reflecting on the demography of COVID-19, including CSDE Affiliate Steven Goodreau.  For more details visit the PAA’s announcement here.

On Monday, Governor Jay Inslee released updated guidance for educational activities for Phase 1, along with new requirements from the L&I Board. In addition, King County issued new guidance on face coverings. All of these mandated updates will necessitate some changes to research plans and policies. Listed below are the changes. 

1. Face coverings. On 5/11/20 King County released new guidelines regarding face coverings. The UW has released guidance for the university, be sure to include this in your plans.
2. Designate a COVID-19 Supervisor for all spaces. Each PI should be designated as the COVID-19 Supervisor for their research group in their Return to In-Person Research plan, or the PI may delegate these responsibilities to a senior research group member (lab manager, senior research staff, etc.) who will be regularly present in the research facility. In some cases a Department or other unit could take over that responsibility for multiple research groups, check with your local unit for policies. The COVID-19 Supervisor responsibilities are to ensure compliance with COVID-19 related requirements as stated in their approved Return to In-Person Research plan and to be available to receive concerns and answer questions.  The COVID-19 Supervisor should check in with the research group regularly regarding compliance. The COVID-19 Supervisor is not required to come to the research facility themselves on a daily basis, but must be available by phone or email.
3. Provide trainings regarding the Return to In-Person Research plan to all onsite research personnel and document those trainings.  Each Return to In-Person Research plan must have a statement about how the training will be carried out and documented.  For instance, a Zoom meeting could be held with all research personnel to go over the plan, providing an opportunity to ask questions.  This meeting, its attendees, and the date would then be documented by the PI. This new required training should be treated like any training requirement for their research group, and the documentation should be kept with other required training documentation. If such a training has already taken place, it does not need to be redone, but it must be documented.
4. Visitors must be tracked by date. This requirement is in place to facilitate contact tracing. As of now, a visitor is defined as anyone who does not normally work in this space, including both UW- and non-UW personnel. Each unit will need to develop a tracking and symptom attestation system for visitors (some of you may have one in place already), and identify the person responsible. For Instance, this could be an email system or online calendar with a reporting process.