# Assessment of Health-Related Work Capacity to Improve Independence of Older Adults

> **NIH NIH R01** · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · 2022 · $657,296

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Work capacity is a measure of health expressed in relation to the functional demands of the work
environment. Specifically, it is the capacity to perform a job or set of jobs, and represents the interaction
between an individual’s cognitive, physical, psychomotor, and sensory abilities and the demands of the
job. However, in existing data, individuals’ health-related functional abilities are not measured in a way
that permits direct comparison to the functional demands of occupations. The goal of the proposed
research is to investigate how functional abilities increase and limit work capacity, how these effects
interact with human capital acquired earlier in life, and how opportunities for people with different
functional ability profiles and skills vary across local areas and industries, shaping their prospects for
independence and healthy aging. We will first develop a new conceptual framework for assessing
health-related work capacity which integrates measurement of cognitive, physical, psychomotor, and
sensory abilities with the measurement of occupational ability requirements. Based on this framework,
we will design two surveys that will enable us to assess functional abilities and skills on the same scale
and in the same way in which the ability and skill requirements of occupations in the national economy
are measured. The surveys will be fielded to a nationally representative sample of individuals
regardless of their current work status. We will use the new data to integrate functional abilities and
skills with federal data on occupational requirements to produce individualized estimates of work
capacity. We will analyze how the new measures of health-related work capacity vary by age, how they
differ across demographic groups, and how they are potentially constrained by functional decline in
abilities, skill limitations, and lack of occupational opportunities in local areas and across industries.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10365396
- **Project number:** 2R01AG046290-07A1
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
- **Principal Investigator:** NICOLE A MAESTAS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $657,296
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2014-06-15 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10365396

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10365396, Assessment of Health-Related Work Capacity to Improve Independence of Older Adults (2R01AG046290-07A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10365396. Licensed CC0.

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