Project Description
Midlife Health Inequities in the Rural South: Risk and Resilience (Midlife HIRS) aims to recruit residents of eastern North Carolina (NC), with particular focus on residents living in what has historically been referred to as Black Belt Counties of NC, to participate in a baseline survey and short follow-up surveys about health and life experiences. The goal of this study is to understand risk and resilience related to health and well-being during the midlife years (30-55 years) for residents living in rural, eastern NC.
This study builds on the work of the Great Smoky Mountains Study (GSMS, located in western NC), a study originating at Duke, and now currently following participants in the Great Smoky Mountains Study of Rural Aging (GSMS-RA). GSMS began when participants were 9-13 years of age, and has continued participant engagement for more than 30 years, with participants now in their early 40’s. With the initiation of Midlife HIRS, our goal to is have GSMS-RA and Midlife HIRS to run concurrently, helping us to better understand the course and processes of aging across rural geographies of NC.
Project Goals
The objective of our study is to develop a new data resource focused on residents of the Black Belt counties in NC to capture the full arc of a life and what it means to be living and aging in a rural context—now focused in eastern NC.
Partners
The University of Vermont
The University of Chicago
The University of Michigan