# Individual and community drivers of hospitalizations for older adults after natural disaster

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $169,861

## Abstract

Candidate: Sue Anne Bell, PhD, FNP-BC is an early career nurse-scientist and disaster response nurse
focused on improving health outcomes for older adults after community-level disruptions, specifically natural
disasters. Dr. Bell's long-term career goals are to become an independent nurse-scientist who advances the
science of aging specific to disasters and a national leader in gerontology, focused on building community
resilience for older adults. The objective of this K23 mentored career development award is for Dr. Bell to
become a successful independent investigator by carrying out a coordinated 5-year plan of training and
research activities. Research Context: There is an unmet need for data that can explain health outcomes for
older adults after disaster. The acute disruption of a disaster can exacerbate potential vulnerabilities for older
adults, leading to a decline in function. With over 1,200 federally declared disasters in the last decade, there is
a critical need for high-quality causal evidence that can preserve function and support for older adults after
disasters. Research Aims: The overall goal of this proposal is to unravel the mechanisms associated with
hospitalizations after disasters among older adults in the US and translate that knowledge into actionable tools
to support older adults prepare for and mitigate the harms of disaster. The specific aims are to: 1) Examine the
relationship between exposure to a natural disaster and condition-specific hospitalizations among older adults,
2) Among a large sample of older adults, examine the extent to which community resilience affects the
likelihood of hospitalization following a natural disaster adults and 3) Interview home health nurses to identify
forms of additional individual and community-level support needed by chronically ill older adults after natural
disaster to avoid hospitalization. Research Plan: To accomplish these aims, Dr. Bell will conduct analyses to
measure hospitalizations after a subset of disasters among older adults, how community resilience affects
individual hospitalizations, and understand how disasters affect older adults from the perspective of home
health nurses. Career Development Plan: Through this research and training proposal, Dr. Bell will build
upon her expertise in qualitative research and disaster response to develop expertise as a gerontology
researcher with expertise in geospatial analysis and collecting data in hard to reach settings and populations.
Dr. Bell's career development goals will be supported through intensive mentorship from an expert and
personally committed team of mentors and national advisory board, advanced coursework, participation in the
local and national scientific community, and progressively independent research. Environment: Dr. Bell's
unique resources include a dedicated and accomplished multidisciplinary mentorship team with whom she has
longstanding collaborations; the outstanding research infrastructure at the Uni...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10172818
- **Project number:** 5K23AG059890-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Susan Anne Bell
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $169,861
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10172818

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10172818, Individual and community drivers of hospitalizations for older adults after natural disaster (5K23AG059890-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10172818. Licensed CC0.

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