# Disease, Disability and Death in an Aging Workforce

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $691,831

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The overarching goal of the “Alcoa Study” remains the development of increasingly rich models to explain the
disparate health and work-capacity trajectories demonstrated in this universally insured, geographically,
socially and economically diverse cohort of 200,000+ men and women as they progress from work-life into
retirement. Outcomes of focus remain incident chronic disease and its progression, disability, retirement
decisions, health in retirement, and mortality. During the current grant cycle we have augmented the
infrastructure and data linkages to our already unique data set, such that we now have access to 1) early life
social context via Census data; 2) personal and family work experience and income across the life span via
IRS and SSA; 3) post-Alcoa health and mortality via Medicare and the National Death Index (NDI) and 4)
contextual social environment from lifetime residential geocoding. Consequently, we propose in the next cycle
to embrace a life course approach to study the social, environmental and behavioral determinants of the
outcomes listed above
The specific aims of this grant are: Aim 1: Link Alcoa workers to individual census records to examine how
early life environment influences later life health outcomes; Aim 2: Assess the impact on health and function of
adverse working environment as it accrues during work-life, with an emphasis on ubiquitous physical hazards;
Aim 3: Identify antecedents of short-term and long-term disability across working life as candidates for
subsequent hypothesis testing; Aim 4: Assess the impact disability benefits have on employee work function
and health; Aim 5: Examine how injuries and health shocks affect retirement savings and subsequent health
trajectories; Aim 6: To address generalizability across studies and populations, compare the Alcoa population
to relevant complementary datasets, administrative and survey.
Viewed altogether, continuation of the Alcoa study with the assembled team of investigators provides an
unparalleled opportunity to address a host of critical empiric and methodologic issues previously
unapproachable. In addition to understanding better which occupational exposures contribute to chronic
disease and disability, these data will allow us to control for economic and other contextual factors to an
extraordinary degree.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9965695
- **Project number:** 5R01AG026291-14
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Linda Cantley
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $691,831
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2006-06-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9965695

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9965695, Disease, Disability and Death in an Aging Workforce (5R01AG026291-14). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9965695. Licensed CC0.

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