Notice Number: NOT-AG-07-001

Key Dates
Release Date: October 31, 2006

Issued by
National Institute on Aging (NIA), (http://www.nia.nih.gov)

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) intends to issue a Request for Applications (RFA) for applications to continue the National Long-Term Care Survey.  The NLTCS is a large nationally-representative sample of about 20,000 people age 65 and older, drawn from Medicare coverage records, followed longitudinally over time, and includes individuals in both the community and institutional facilities.  There have been 6 waves of the NLTCS, fielded in 1982, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004.  The NLTCS has been a primary resource for studying changes in health and functional status and for tracking health expenditures, Medicare service use, and the availability of personal, family, and community resources for caregiving.  

The RFA is expected to be published in December 2006 with applications due in the Spring of 2007.   The RFA intends to solicit applications with two goals.  First, to field the next wave of the NLTCS (ideally in 2009), and to make the data publicly available. Second, applicants will be expected to demonstrate a strong scientific rationale and strategy for planning a redesign of the NLTCS beyond the 2009 wave (funds for planning and piloting will be permitted).  The successful applicant will be encouraged to submit competing continuation and/or competing supplement applications for additional rounds of data collection.  

While the RFA will stress maintaining comparability with previous NLTCS waves, applicants will be encouraged to consider whether or how best to use the Census Bureau as the data collection agency.  Options for redesign were discussed at two meetings of the National Academy of Sciences (see meeting summaries at http://www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInformation/ExtramuralPrograms/BehavioralAndSocialResearch/ConferencesAndWorkshops.htm .)  Design and content changes might include periodicity; sample size and selection; measurement of health and disability (including performance measures and biomarkers), living arrangements and assistive care systems, social and physical environment, and life course exposures; modules and supplements on specific topics; and innovative uses of linkages to Medicare and other administrative records.   Competitive applications should propose investigative teams that are appropriately interdisciplinary, should demonstrate strong institutional commitment, and should propose a PI with a good record of producing and disseminating user-friendly public data files. 

NIA plans to make a Reading Room available that provides the necessary information on the NLTCS sample, data files, documentation, etc.  Suggestions from potential applicants for the contents of the Reading Room are requested.  Please send suggestions by email to the contact person named below.  

Inquiry

For further information, please contact:

Georgeanne E. Patmios
Behavioral and Social Research Program
National Institute on Aging
Gateway Building, Suite 533
7201 Wisconsin Avenue, MSC 9205
Bethesda, MD 20892-9205 (use 20814 for express mail)
Tel: 301-496-3138; Fax: 301-402-0051
Email: PatmiosG@NIA.NIH.GOV

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	Office of Extramural Research (OER)			National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892			Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
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