IOA History

50th anniversary logo

Celebrating the
Institute on Aging’s
50th Anniversary:

 

IOA Achievements

IOA Historical Timeline

Images from IOA’s History

IOA logo along with the text "Revealing the Journey of Adult Life" and 4 photos of older people.

IOA Achievements

IOA has spearheaded vibrant advances in the science of aging and life course studies through its MIDUS research.

MIDUS Logo

MIDUS (Midlife in the United States) is a landmark national longitudinal study that began in 1995.

MIDUS:

  • includes lifespan data on 11,000+ US adults, initially aged 25-74
  • tracks longitudinal change with repeated assessments since 1995– many have been in the study for nearly 30 years
  • assesses over 25,000 variables in multiple domains, linking psychosocial and behavioral factors to biomedical and neurological assessments
  • is led by IOA with collaborators from multiple U.S. universities.

Scientific Advances from IOA’s MIDUS Study

MIDUS provided the first comprehensive description of midlife in the United States:

  • Before MIDUS, midlife (years between 30 & 70, with 40-60 at its core) was not well studied, even though it is the longest segment of the life course.
  • MIDUS recognized the importance of gaining a truer understanding of this period, since midlife is a time of notable responsibility for work and family, which is of critical importance to society.
  • Some initial findings appeared in the book, How Healthy Are We: A National Study of Well-Being at Midlife, published in 2004.

 

A young family of Asian descent is standing together in a public park. The mother is pregnant, expecting another child. Her husband holds her while her son kisses her belly. They smile.
Grandfather and grandson play lying on grass, aerial view

MIDUS changed the focus of aging research so that it now includes pathways leading to health and well-being:

  • Before MIDUS, most aging research was restricted to older samples and focused on disease and decline.
  • MIDUS is one of few studies funded by the federal government that covers the expanse of midlife and looks for protective factors that help Americans age well.

MIDUS has made clear that a truer understanding of aging requires a multidisciplinary, long-term approach:

  • MIDUS was one of the first national studies to recognize that multiple factors interact to influence how people age– aging thus cannot be fully understood by conducting research within the bounds of any one scientific discipline.
  • Instead, MIDUS includes researchers from multiple fields, gathering data on how psychological, social, and behavioral factors interact Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science Coverwith biological, neurological, and genetic factors to illuminate who ages well and why, and who does not, and why.
  • MIDUS promotes an integrative science that works across, rather than within, traditional disciplinary boundaries.
  • Some of the results from this part of MIDUS appeared in the book, The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science, published in 2018.

Collage showing the different types of multidisciplinary research done in MIDUS

Chart showing the number of MIDUS publications in each of over 35 topic areas.

The science of aging has been advanced in multiple arenas by making MIDUS data available to all researchers.

By the time of our 50th Anniversary:

  • 26,000+ researchers world wide have used the publicly available data
  • 1800+ publications using MIDUS data have appeared in 450+ scientific journals
  • 35+ topic areas have been analyzed in MIDUS articles (see chart)
  • 300+ cross-study analyses have compared MIDUS data to other studies
  • 275+ dissertations/theses have used MIDUS data.

The future of MIDUS:

  • We are happy to report that in late 2022, IOA received another $62 million in funding from the National Institute on Aging to continue the MIDUS study for another 6 years.
  • This will include another round of comprehensive assessments as well as new foci on Alzheimer’s disease and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • See the MIDUS Achievements report for more details.

Cover image of MIDUS Achievements report

IOA Historical Timeline

For more information
about IOA achievements,
view our:

Timeline of IOA’s history

Image of the first page of the IOA History Timeline pdf.