No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
The goal of the National Institute on Aging has been to support innovative research that fosters the health and independence of older adults while studying conditions that uniquely affect the most vulnerable among America's aging population. Although Edward R. Roybal Centers have focused on this goal since 1993,1 the current focus as of September 2019 will be presented.2 The primary aims of this iteration of the Roybal Center foci were to: (a) promote the development of principle-driven behavioral interventions guided by basic science; (b) develop interventions using the NIH Stage Model3; (c) facilitate collaborations among academic researchers; and (d) attract new researchers to translational aging research. Since September 2019, 15 Roybal Centers have been funded, with 11 centers focusing on a variety of approaches to promote healthy aging and another 4 centers focusing on issues related to dementia care and caregiver support (Table 1). A coordinating center was created at Northwell Health to support the work of these scientifically diverse centers. Between 2019 and 2023, these centers developed clinical trials ranging from interventions to increase utilization of dance among older adults to increase physical exercise4 to text message interventions to increase influenza vaccination rates.5 In accordance with these Roybal themes, the members of our consortium have utilized existing and innovative intervention paradigms in trials to facilitate healthy aging in three primary topic areas: (1) harnessing new technologies to deliver interventions among older adults; (2) tailoring existing interventions to meet the unique needs and challenges faced by older adults; and (3) testing interventions that are culturally relevant and tailored to specific populations. Our Roybal Center publications can also be categorized in terms of the NIH Stage Model for Behavioral Research.3 The Stage Model provides a framework for conceptualizing behavioral research from initial basic science all the way to the adoption of interventions into standard clinical practice. The work of the Roybal Centers focused on Stage 1a/1b trials (intervention generation and refinement), Stage 2 trials (efficacy research in a research setting), Stage 3 trials (efficacy research in a community setting), and Stage 4 trials (intervention effectiveness). By classifying the work of our consortium using the NIH stage models and these three topic areas, we can categorize the work from our consortium over the past 4 years (Figure 1, Supplemental Table S1). Trials conducted by the Roybal Centers mainly focused on Stage 1a/1b, with the majority utilizing technology (smartphones, internet, remote sensors) to improve the health of older adults. Several trials adapted interventions to older adults or specific cultural groups. Many other trials evaluated the efficacy of interventions in both research (Stage 2) and clinical settings (Stage 3). A couple of trials within our consortium engaged in effectiveness research (Stage 4). However, no interventions have yet reached Stage 5 research dealing with intervention dissemination. The topics studied by these trials included intervention adherence, dementia caregiving, physical activity, and vaccination hesitancy (Supplemental Table S2). This letter presents only a snapshot of the innovative and exciting work being conducted by the Roybal Centers. We have focused only on some of the completed or ongoing clinical trials in the interest of space. Additional consortium activities involve exploring elements of future intervention feasibility, intervention fidelity, training materials for wider dissemination, and cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions in later stage trials. The accomplishments of the centers are especially impressive as part of the funding period overlapped with height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This impediment and the requirement of social distancing encouraged researchers to recruit participants remotely and take advantage of new technologies to conduct screening, provide instructions, administer interventions, and collect outcome data. In this way, the problems of the pandemic actually spurred technological innovation in the conduct of research and the delivery of interventions for older adults. Exciting cross-Roybal Center activities included joint progress on later stage trials, annual meetings focused on trial methods innovations and advances, and in-progress special journal issues to showcase Roybal consortium advances. These issues will focus on: "Digital technology for behavioral Interventions in aging," and on "What makes It work: Mechanisms of action for social and behavioral interventions." The Roybal Coordinating Center has also worked with the NIA Research Centers Collaborative Network (RCCN) to help facilitate collaboration between the Edward R. Roybal Centers and six other center programs sponsored by the NIA. This is only the beginning of the journey for the existing Roybal Centers and the growth of the Roybal consortium. We hope that the science of the Roybal Centers will continue to develop new interventions, modify existing interventions to improve their quality, test the efficacy of these interventions, and examine effectiveness and fidelity by applying interventions in a variety of settings. In addition, we hope that new Roybal Centers will join our consortium to expand the scope of our research and to improve upon the work that has previously been conducted. Mark J. Butler, Karina W. Davidson, and Jerry Suls prepared the manuscript. None declared by any of the authors. This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (grant number R24AG064191). This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (grant number R24AG064191). Supplemental Table S1. Research Activities Snapshot: The National Institute on Aging (NIA) Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translational Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging and for Translational Research on Dementia Care Provider Support. Supplemental Table S2. Roybal Centers Research Accomplishments by Topic. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Loading…
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.