# Aging in the time of COVID: Racism, Isolation, and Meaning

> **NIH NIH R25** · ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $107,643

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated and intensified the long-standing pandemic of
systemic racism in the United States for older Black, Indigenous, and persons of color (BIPoC)
and inadequate protections for frontline healthcare workers who serve older adults, many of
them BIPoC themselves. Cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations and mortality are higher among
BIPoC older adults and frontline healthcare workers compared to non-Hispanic White older
adults and frontline healthcare workers. As an administrative supplement to an existing parent
award (Advancing Diversity in Aging Research (ADAR) R25), the purpose of this research is to
engage historically underrepresented undergraduate students in a research study aimed at
understanding the experience of aging, isolation, racism and meaning for BIPoC older adults
and frontline healthcare workers. As a project specific to bioethics research, this qualitative
study uses Photovoice to study and visually portray the impact of racism, isolation and meaning
on the lived experience of BIPoC adults over age 65 and BIPoC frontline healthcare workers
who work with older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Undergraduate students (n=15) and
BIPoC frontline health workers (n=15) will be recruited from St. Catherine University while older
adults (n=30) will be recruited from local housing and independent living resources. Photovoice
is a community-engaged participatory research approach in which participants photograph and
reflect upon a particular community issue, engage in critical consciousness through large and
small group conversations about the photographs, and disseminate the photographs in an
exhibition to influence community leaders and inform social change.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10365002
- **Project number:** 3R25AG060892-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine Ann Campbell
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $107,643
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10365002

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10365002, Aging in the time of COVID: Racism, Isolation, and Meaning (3R25AG060892-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10365002. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*