The Institute of Gerontology is the hub for coordinating and conducting The University of Georgia's education, research, and outreach services associated with the study of aging and older adults. Through its 30-plus member university-wide Faculty of Gerontology, the Institute collaborates with educators and researchers within Georgia, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
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Email this pageThe members of the university-wide Faculty of Gerontology welcome inquiries and collaboration on their research on aging. Research areas include functional assessment, caregiving, long term care and end of life care, as well as genetics, normal to pathological memory changes, vision, nutrition, exercise science, pharmacy, adult education, social work, marketing and housing.
Caring for Georgia's Frail Elders is a research project funded through the Georgia For A Lifetime Initiative to assess the status of Georgia's palliative and end-of-life care. It included statewide surveys of hospitals, nursing homes, hospice agencies,Community Care Services Programs, and a training needs assessment.
The Institute of Gerontology's Associate Director, Dr. Anne P. Glass, is the leading researcher studying the emerging field of elder cohousing and other elder intentional communities, - a new alternative living arrangement for older adults which puts choice into the hands of the older adults themselves, allowing them to proactively choose how and where they will live their later years, as well as with whom they will grow old, in a close-knit community where neighbors look after each other.
As a gerontologist interested in minority aging issues, Institute Assistant Professor Dr. Kerstin Gerst’s research focus is specifically on older Hispanic immigrants, examining the influence of ethnical concentration in neighborhoods on minority elders’ physical and mental health as well as the impact of immigration on mental health of older Hispanic immigrants.
A keystone research project at the Institute of Gerontology is The Georgia Centenarian Study (1998 to 2007) of longevity and survival of the oldest old, led by the Institute Director Emeritus, Leonard W. Poon. This project combines faculty expertise in aging at the Institute with researchers from nine different universities from across the nation. This research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and now by the National Institute on Aging. For more information, please see the links to the right.
Established in 1995 via primary funding from a special grant from the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to The University of Georgia Institute of Gerontology, The Georgia Gerontology Consortium is an experimental program to enhance student and faculty training and development in gerontology throughout the State of Georgia. The four programs in the Georgia Gerontology Consortium are:
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