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Linking medical claims and environmental data to examine diabetes management amid disasters
September 3, 2026, Virtual
Featuring Dr. Cydney McGuire (Indiana University) and Dr. Hugh Roland & Dr. Azar Abadi (University of Alabama at Birmingham).

This seminar will discuss the research practices and decisions behind an ongoing pilot study that investigates the community level factors shaping a critical component of diabetes management for aging adults: consistency in care. During natural disasters, uncertainty and complexity jeopardize consistent diabetes management, leading to possible disability and death. To investigate how disasters and community-level factors shape consistency in care, we combine multiple data sources that measure diabetes-related employer-sponsored medical claims, metropolitan disaster exposure, public and community infrastructure, and socio-demographic factors. We will discuss the challenges and solutions in accessing and wrangling disparate data sources, and the analytical decisions that inform the final analytical data structure. In the end, we developed a data set that allows us to assess the moderating effects of community infrastructures on disaster diabetes care impacts. Our analysis enables generalizable identification of when care utilization impacts peak, how long impacts persist, and potential moderating roles of community-level infrastructure regime. Our next step is to also add age-specific net migration rates into this data set. 

Watch Recording
Using a qualitative approach to study climate and housing: A focus on senior tenants
August 19, 2026, Virtual

Featuring Dr. Liv Yoon, Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Climate change is increasing heat-related health risks, yet understanding how people experience heat requires methods that extend beyond quantitative measurements and epidemiological data. This presentation explores the decision-making process behind an ongoing mixed-methods study exploring the intersection between housing and climate crises in British Columbia, Canada, with a focus on senior tenants. Rather than focusing primarily on study findings, I will discuss the methodological decisions that have shaped the project so far – with a focus on qualitative methods – and reflect on challenges and unexpected insights that have emerged along the way. Although grounded in research on older adults and extreme heat, the presentation offers practical lessons for researchers interested in incorporating qualitative methods into aging, health, and environmental research.

Watch Recording
Climate Hazard Center’s Rainfall (CHIRPS) and Temperature (CHIRTS) Datasets
February 5, 3 p.m. MT | Virtual

Speaker: Dr. Shraddhanand Shukla, Associate Researcher at the Department of Geography at UCSB

Developed to facilitate global drought monitoring and support food security early warning, CHIRPS leverages high-resolution satellite infrared estimates integrated with in-situ station data to provide a spatially consistent, long-term (1981–present) and high-resolution rainfall record. The CHIRTS dataset offers high-resolution maximum and minimum temperature records, essential for identifying heat extremes that impact humans and agriculture in data-sparse regions. The presentation provides an overview of the methodologies, validation, and highlight applications of these datasets. 

Watch Recording
Hazardous Homes and Communities? A Mixed-Methods Study of Disaster Exposure and Dementia Risk
September 25, 10am MST/ 12pm EST, Virtual Event

In an era of escalating climate hazards, the Marshall Fire Community Health Research Study examined how exposure to the 2021 wildland–urban interface fire in Superior and Louisville, Colorado may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, using qualitative interviews and reflexive thematic analysis to identify behavioral and social pathways across the life course. These findings informed a new quantitative investigation using the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to assess links between local climatic events and later-life cognitive health, with the goal of guiding community interventions and long-term recovery strategies.

Watch Recording
Measuring Extreme Temperatures and Thermal Comfort in Aging and Demographic Research
March 19th, 2025

The seminar will discuss heat measures for aging and demographic research. It will address the properties and pertinence of using mean and extreme temperature measures, as well as using combined indicators of heat (temperature, humidity, radiation, or ventilation) and their adjustments by age. To illustrate construct, measures results and data integration strategies results from two demonstration projects will be presented. Plenty of time will be provided for Q&A.

Impact of Extreme Weather on Hard-to-Capture, Vulnerable Populations: Evidence from Hart Island — New York’s Public Burial Ground

Investigators: Frank W. Heiland, Deborah Balk, Selen Ozdogan, Jennifer Brite, Peter Marcotullio and Christian Braneon
Funded by NIAID R03 Grant AI166809-01, NIA R61AG086854 (CACHE)

Living Arrangements of the Elderly, Care Patterns, and Heat Stress

Investigators: Landy Sánchez, Emerson Baptista, Cecilia Conde 
Funded by UN Women

Watch Recording
Social & Environmental Data Integration at the U.S. County Scale
February 18th, 2025

This seminar uses two ongoing interdisciplinary, research projects to illustrate techniques for integrating social and environmental data at the county scale. The projects engage different social data (American Time Use Survey; National Health Interview Survey) and different climate-related data (temperature data from GridMET; disaster data from FEMA and SHELDUS). Investigators will review project goals, background on data and measurement decisions, as well as integration and analytical strategies. Plenty of time will be provided for Q&A.

Behavioral Response to Extreme Temperatures among the Elderly

Integration of American Time Use Survey & temperature data from GridMET
Investigators: Kathryn Grace, Sarah Flood
University of Minnesota (Minnesota Population Center – MPC)
Funded by NIA-UMNLCC seed funding (P30AG066613)

Natural Disasters and the Health of the Rural Elderly

Integration of National Health Interview Survey; Disaster data from FEMA, SHELDUS
Investigators: Lori Hunter, Catherine Talbot, Helen Wilson-Burns
University of Colorado Boulder (CU Population Center – CUPC)
Funded by NIA (R03AG080252); NIA-funded NILCHDD  (R24AG045061)

Watch Recording
An Introduction to the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS): Resources for Understanding Older Adult Rural Health
Thursday, January 30, 2025

Presented by:
Jennifer Schrack, PhD, NHATS MPI
Maureen Skehan, MSPH, NHATS Senior Research Associate
Department of Epidemiology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health