Accelerating the Search for Interventions Aimed at Expanding the Health Span in Humans: The Role of Epidemiology

Background: Extensive work in basic and clinical science suggests that biological mechanisms of aging are causally related to the development of disease and disability in late life. Modulation of the biological mechanisms of aging can extend both life span and health span in animal models, but translation to humans has been slow. Methods: Summary of workshop proceedings from the 2018-2019 Epidemiology of Aging Workshop hosted by the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging. Results: Epidemiologic studies play a vital role to progress in this field, particularly in evaluating new risk factors and measures of biologic aging that may influence health span, as well as developing relevant outcome measures that are robust and relevant for older individuals. Conclusions: Appropriately designed epidemiological studies are needed to identify targets for intervention and to inform study design and sample size estimates for future clinical trials designed to promote health span.P30 AG049638/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R01 ES025225/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States UH2 AG056933/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R01 AI142086/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States U01 DK057136/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States UH2 AG056925/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States MR/M023095/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom R21 AG060018/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U19 AG062682/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R01 AG059416/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U01 HL130114/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States R01 AG059729/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U01 AG023744/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U01 AG023755/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R21 AG053198/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U01 AG057545/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States P30 AG021332/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States P30 AG024827/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U24 AG051129/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R35 GM124922/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States R01 AG052964/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States U01 DK057002/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States R01 AG048023/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States R01 AG052608/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States P30 ES009089/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United Statespublished version, accepted version (12 month embargo), submitted versio