Aging in New York

JASA, an agency serving more than 40,000 older New Yorkers across a range of services, is working to improve the well-being of its clients and residents by integrating health promotion, disease prevention, and chronic disease management into its services. Uptake of vaccines, other health promotion activities, and consistent, effective chronic disease management are lower than they should be given the health risks for older adults, who often live with multiple chronic conditions. Furthermore, uptake of vaccines and other health services is higher for Asians and Whites and lower for Black and Latinx people, with special challenges for non-English speaking immigrants.

Brookdale worked with JASA to gain a better understanding of the motivations for and barriers to use of health services for specific groups. Brookdale conducted focus groups with six highly differentiated groups of older adults residing in JASA housing or receiving services from JASA, including Chinese Americans, Russian speakers, U.S.-born Blacks, Caribbean Americans, Latinx people, and U.S.-born Whites. JASA will use the findings to promote COVID vaccination now and when undertaking future health promotion activities.

Publications:

Taking Charge: Social Support Dynamics among Older Adults and Their Significant Others in COVID-19 Vaccination and Mitigation Efforts (March 2023)

Older people are often portrayed as passive victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet older adults do take responsibility for their own health and that of others.

Information Consumption, Trust Dynamics and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Older Adults: Implications for Health Messaging (October 2023)

Information overload eroded trust in authority and led to vaccine hesitancy. Participants turned to their personal networks, which strongly influenced decisions about vaccination.

The Experiences of Chinese Older Immigrants During COVID-19 in New York City: A Qualitative Study (poster, November 2023)

Fears of COVID-19 and anti-Asian violence amplified each other. This poster was presented at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting.