Prof. Jasmine Travers awarded NIH grant to study disparities in nursing home use among Black and Latino older adults with dementia

Jasmine Travers, PhD, RN, AGPCNP-BC, assistant professor at NYU Meyers, has received a grant from the National Institute on Aging to identify unmet needs driving disproportionate and avoidable nursing home use among Black and Latino older adults with dementia. The five-year, $1.2 million grant (K76AG074922)—an Emerging Leaders Career Development Award—will support her development of an assessment instrument called IN-HOME, which stands for Identifying Needs to Help Older adults Maintain Everyday community living.

Enabling older adults to live at home while they age, rather than placing them in nursing homes unnecessarily, is often a priority for older adults, their families, and policymakers on the federal, state, and local levels. However, the disproportionate rise in nursing home use among Black and Latino people with dementia reflects the inadequacy of existing programs and policies to support aging in place for the most vulnerable.

“How can we support Black and Latino people living with dementia to age in place and remain living in the community? Developing an instrument to identify which unmet needs are disproportionately driving avoidable nursing home placements in this population is an important first step in reducing disparities,” said Travers.

Using a mixed methods research design, Travers will develop IN-HOME, an assessment instrument aimed at addressing the unmet needs that drive people of color living with dementia to experience avoidable nursing home placements at greater rates than their White counterparts. She will use qualitative interviews to describe the unmet needs that lead to these placements, and will develop an integrative analysis of her findings to inform the instrument. Travers will then pilot the use of IN-HOME, and will use preliminary findings from her research to generate actionable, evidence-based policy recommendations.

“My goal is to develop innovative approaches to eliminate disparities in access to and quality of person-centered long-term care for Black and Latino people living with dementia through the use of mixed methods research,” added Travers.