John W. Rowe, MD, Mailman School Professor of Health Policy and Management, Chairs New MacArthur Foundation Research Network

Network will examine impact of aging society

November 25, 2008 – The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is creating a new inter-disciplinary research network to help America prepare for the challenges and opportunities posed by our aging society, and named John W. Rowe (Jack), MD, professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and former chairman and CEO of Aetna, as chair. In the 1990s, Dr. Rowe chaired MacArthur’s Network on Successful Aging, which found that most of the factors that predict successful aging are not solely genetic but at least equally related to lifestyle. The Network published a best-selling book, Successful Aging.

In the middle of the next decade, the United States is expected to become an aging society, one feature of which is that those over age 60 will outnumber those under age 15. As the country increasingly ages, there will be many consequences, and the country may not be well prepared to deal with this impending situation.

According to MacArthur Vice President Julia Stasch, the new research network will address the broad social implications of this uncharted demographic territory, examining questions such as how a large, longer-living, elderly population can maintain its productivity and contribute to its own well-being and society’s; and how our economy, culture, politics, and country will change and look over time. Early next year, the Network will present new U.S. population and mortality projections based on emerging evidence and will compare these to current government forecasts.

“Much prior work in this area has focused on the economic implications of the looming demographic transition, including the increasing burden of entitlements,” said Dr. Rowe. “The new Network will supplement these efforts by exploring the substantial opportunities that may be derived by harnessing the wisdom and energy of the elderly in new organizations and arrangements that provide them with meaningful roles and yield economic, social, behavioral, and health benefits for them and other generations.”

In addition to Dr. Rowe, Linda Fried, MD, MPH, Dean and DeLamar Professor of Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health, is a member of The Network. Dr. Fried is a global leader in the fields of epidemiology and geriatrics, and has dedicated her career to the science of healthy aging.

The MacArthur Research Network on an Aging Society is supported by a three-year,
$4 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation. More information is available at http://www.agingsocietynetwork.org/home

About the Mailman School of Public Health
The only accredited school of public health in New York City, and among the first in the nation, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 1000 graduate students in pursuit of masters and doctoral degrees. Its students and more than 300 multi-disciplinary faculty engage in research and service in the city, nation, and around the world, concentrating on biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management, population and family health, and sociomedical sciences. www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu