Biography: Robert A. Hummer is the Howard W. Odum Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Fellow of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). He moved to UNC-CH in 2015 after spending 19 years at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as Director of their NICHD-supported Population Research Center, PI of their NICHD-supported Training Program in Population Studies, and Chairperson of their Department of Sociology. He recently served as the 2021 President of the Population Association of America and is currently a member of the Committee on Population of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. His research focuses on the accurate documentation and more complete understanding of health and mortality disparities in the United States. He is currently Director and Principal Investigator of the long-running National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which is now funded by the National Institute on Aging and five co-funding institutes/offices (NICHD, NIMHD, NIDA, OBSSR, ODP). Now in its sixth wave, Add Health is one of the most innovative and well-utilized nationally representative cohort studies of Americans ever undertaken and provides data for thousands of researchers to more fully understand the multi-level (biological, survey, contextual) life course factors that contribute to health and health disparities in US adolescents and adults.
Title: Assessing Cognitive Functioning and Health Disparities in Early Midlife: A Sneak Peek at Wave VI of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
Abstract: For over 25 years, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) project has provided the scientific community with innovative data to understand the health and social life of a nationally representative cohort of Americans who were in grades 7-12 in 1994-95. The Add Health cohort is now in their 40s. Recently funded primarily by the National Institute on Aging, Wave VI of Add Health is currently in the field and is focused on providing the scientific community with novel data on the cognitive and sensory/physical functioning, social life, health, and health behavior of the cohort. This presentation by the principal investigator and director of Add Health will focus on findings from some of the Wave VI pilot data, which tested innovative methods for assessing the cognitive, physical, and sensory functioning of this early midlife cohort. The presentation will also provide an overview of the innovative design of Wave VI, information on some of the new measures that have been added to the survey and biological data collection, and a timeline of the fieldwork and data dissemination plan.
The recording of Dr. Hummer’s talk may be accessed here.
