Title: APHA Award for Excellence
Author:
Section/SPIG: Aging & Public Health
Issue Date:
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| Laurence G. Branch, PhD, winner of 2003 Award for Excellence |
Laurence G. Branch, PhD, has contributed to the improvement of the health of the population through his work in helping to define “preventable disability” and in the development of the concept of “active life expectancy.”
He accomplished this through pioneer efforts in the quantitative measurement of functional status among middle-aged and older adults. He was the first to: collect self-reported activities of daily living (ADL) data from a probability sample of older people living in the community; do physical function performance testing in the homes of a probability sample of elders; have longitudinal data to calculate active live expectancy for a probability sample of older people; and address quantitatively the concept of spend-down to Medicaid eligibility with a probability sample of older respondents. His research developed the methodology used to spawn a generation of longitudinal studies of the normal aging process that have been sponsored by the National Institute on Aging/NIH since the mid-1980’s.
Life expectancy has dramatically increased throughout the 20th century. Branch was one of several to realize that merely extending life with a period of prolonged functional disability did not meet the quality of life needs of older people or society at large, and Branch and his colleagues were the first to quantify active life expectancies based on individual reports of declining function. His research has focused on the frail elders and adult disabled, and has helped elucidate the roles of functional status, race, income, and education on frailty and changes in active life expectancy. Current strategies to extend active life expectancy, such as increased exercise, health promotion, and chronic disease management, are all predicated on the measurement of functional status (ADLs) and the prevention of further disability. The health policy implications of Dr. Branch’s work are extensive, from modernizing Medicare to stabilizing Social Security. Perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of Branch’s work are the disabled and older populations and their informal caregivers, who now have more hope to add meaning to their lives as they approach their 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th decades.