# Longitudinal and Intergenerational Determinants of Aging and Mortality

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $307,227

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Some of the most important open questions in aging relate to the impact of longitudinal and
intergenerational factors. But documenting the role of early-life and intergenerational determinants of health
and aging is limited by the dearth of large-scale micro-data containing this information. This is especially true
for understudied populations such as women and minority groups.
 Our research objective is to add critical information on cause of death to the new large-scale data resource,
the Longitudinal, Intergenerational Family Electronic Micro-database (LIFE-M). Funded by the National
Science Foundation, LIFE-M links millions of vital records (birth, marriage, and death certificates) to decennial
censuses over four generations and 120 years for five states. LIFE-M is a representative sample of cohorts
aging and dying in the last 25 years of the 20th century and includes crucial early-life and intergenerational
information. Enhancing the LIFE-M with cause of death will facilitate path-breaking research on the relationship
of longevity and cause of death with demographic, socio-economic, and early-life environmental factors for
family networks across four generations.
 We will achieve this objective by pursuing the following specific aims:
 (1) We will use new “Smart Indexing” technology to digitize and cross-validate hand-written cause-of-death
information;
 (2) We will link digitized causes of death to the LIFE-M infrastructure and create extensive documentation for
 this new variable for public use; and
 (3) We will publicly release the cause-of-death variable and documentation with the LIFE-M dataset, meta-
 data, and supporting documentation on ICPSR in 2020.
 The proposed project will also have broader impacts. In addition to contributing a significant new data
resource that can be added to Minnesota Population Center's historical linked censuses and the Census
Longitudinal Infrastructure Project (CLIP), this project's methodological innovations in script digitization will
enhance on-going and future data infrastructure initiatives. Both contributions promise to transform the
research frontier in population health and aging in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9829517
- **Project number:** 5R01AG057704-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Martha Jane Bailey
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $307,227
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9829517

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9829517, Longitudinal and Intergenerational Determinants of Aging and Mortality (5R01AG057704-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9829517. Licensed CC0.

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