Research Guides: WRPR 123: Old Age in the Modern Age (HC) Spring 2021: Background

History and Biographical Sources

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History
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Offers more than 450 articles with scholarly analysis. See relevant articles including "Life Stages" and "Retirement Communities".
Medicare and Medicaid History
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers multiple documents concerning the organizations' history.
Social Security History
Presents an overview of Social Security's development with links to documents, archives, and images.

American National Biography
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Offers portraits of more than 18,000 men and women, from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the nation. No living person is included.
Literature Resource Center
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Provides biographies, bibliographies and scholarly articles on novelists, poets, essayists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of highly-studied authors.

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

The following sources provide overviews of some of the issues and topics in this course. When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography at the end of the article for further reading. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, sometimes, Web resources considered to be the most up-to-date and reliable. This makes a good start for your research.

Encyclopedia of Aging by Richard Schulz
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ISBN: 0826148433
Publication Date: 2006-02-01
The Encyclopedia of Aging contains concise, readable explorations of hundreds of terms, concepts, and issues related to the lives of older adults, as well as coverage of programs and services for the elderly. Also considers issues in science, medicine and the social sciences.
Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences by Linda George (Editor);
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Publication Date: 2015-10-15
Provides a synthesis and review of the latest research in the social sciences of aging. Covers not only the foundational, classic themes, but also a rich array of emerging topics including families, immigration, social factors, and cognition, caregiving, neighborhoods, and built environments, religion and health, and sexual behavior.
Handbook of the Psychology of Aging by K. Warner Schaie (Volume Editor);
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Publication Date: 2015-10-27
Tackles the biological and environmental influences on behavior as well as the reciprocal interface between changes in the brain and behavior during the adult life span. Topics include preclinical neuropathology, audition and language comprehension, cognitive interventions and neural processes, the connection of mood and cognition, cross-cultural issues, financial decision-making and capacity, technology, and more.
Handbook of Theories of Aging by Vern L. Bengtson (Editor); Richard Settersten (Editor)
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Publication Date: 2016-05-28
Addresses theories and concepts built in four disciplinary areas- biology, psychology, social sciences, and policy- as well as landmark advances in trans-disciplinary science. Many chapters also address connections between theories and policy or practice. Each set of authors has been asked to consider how theories in their area address matters of diversity and inequalities in aging, and how theories might be revised or tested with these matters in mind.
Oxford American Handbook of Geriatric Medicine
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Publication Date: 2010
This handbooks offer up-to-date advice on examination, investigations, common procedures, and in-patient care. It is based on experiences and conditions in the United States.
The Oxford Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging by Daniel Kaplan (Editor); Barbara Berkman (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780199336951
Publication Date: 2015-11-12
Addresses the interdisciplinary health care context and the broader needs for health and aging. This includes theories of gerontology, innovations in clinical interventions, and major developments in the social policies that structure and finance health care and senior services. Includes detailed recommendations of best practices for an array of health conditions and examines important diversity issues.

Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are a particularly useful resource when doing research. They address the issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars. They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles for greater understanding.

Annual Review of Anthropology
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Covers significant developments in the fields of the social sciences and the natural sciences.
Examples of relevant articles include:
Anthropology of Aging and Care (2015) (Annual Review of Anthropology)
Consequences of Age-Related Cognitive Declines (2012) (Annual Review of Psychology)
Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Extensive annotated bibliographies on specific topics within a variety of disciplines written by scholars in those fields. Use the search box in the upper right corner to find material on your topic across all available subject sections.
Note this resource is under development with new essays added twice a year. Essays of interest now available include:
"Active Aging" in the Public Health section.
"Aging" in the Anthropology section.
"Frail Elderly" in the Public Health section.
"Gerontology" in the Sociology section.
Sociology Compass
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This journal publishes literature reviews in the field of sociology. Relevant articles include:
"Aging and undocumented: The sociology of aging meets immigration status", 2021
"The Changing Practices and Meanings of Grandparenthood. Reflections on the Demographical Trends and Changing Representations of Ageing", 2015
"'Old age' as a social location: Theorizing institutional processes, cultural expectations, and interactional practices", 2019
"What is new with old? What old age teaches us about inequality and stratification", 2017

Dissertations & Theses
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ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is a collection of scholarly research in the Humanities and Social Sciences that consists of 2.7 million searchable citations to dissertations and theses from around the world, and 1.2 million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Coverage is from 1861 to the present day.

Web Resources

Administration for Community Living
This organization works to improve the lives of older adults and people wit disabilities through services, research and education.
Aging Stats
AgingStats.gov is a federal interagency forum on aging-related statistics. Reports include information about population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care.
Alzheimer's Association
This health organization serves people with Alzheimer's, caregivers, and medical providers and researchers.
American Society on Aging
The American Society on Aging is an association of diverse individuals bound by a common goal: to support the commitment and enhance the knowledge and skills of those who seek to improve the quality of life of older adults and their families. The membership of ASA is multidisciplinary and inclusive of professionals who are concerned with the physical, emotional, social, economic and spiritual aspects of aging. The site includes forums, webinars, publications, and other resources.
Longitudinal Studies of Aging (LSOAs)
The Longitudinal Studies of Aging (LSOAs) is a collaborative project of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). It is a multicohort study of persons 70 years of age and over designed primarily to measure changes in the health, functional status, living arrangements, and health services utilization of two cohorts of Americans as they move into and through the oldest ages.
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA)
NACDA's mission is to advance research on aging by helping researchers to profit from the under-exploited potential of a broad range of datasets. Subjects include demographics, social and economic characteristics, mental and physical health functioning and well-being, and health care needs and financing.
National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS)
The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) is one in a continuing series of nationally representative sample surveys of U.S. home health and hospice agencies. It is designed to provide descriptive information on home health and hospice agencies, their staffs, their services, and their patients. NHHCS was first conducted in 1992 and was repeated in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000, and most recently in 2007.
National Institute on Aging
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has been at the forefront of the Nation's research activities dedicated to understanding the nature of aging, supporting the health and well being of older adults, and extending healthy, active years of life for more people. Their research program covers a broad range of areas, from the study of basic cellular changes that occur with age to the examination of the biomedical, social, and behavioral aspects of age-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease.
National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study
The data about long-term care in these studies includes day services centers and participants and residential care communities. For data from 2004 and earlier, see the National Nursing Home Survey.
U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging
The Special Committee on Aging has served as a focal point in the Senate for discussion and debate on matters relating to older Americans since 1961. Often, the Committee will submit its findings and recommendations for legislation to the Senate. In addition, the Committee publishes materials of assistance to those interested in public policies which relate to the elderly. This site is particularly useful for information on Medicare.