Productive Aging and Work Research Goals

man sitting at his computer desk

An important part of the NCPAW’s agenda is to identify goals that need to be addressed regarding aging-related research and the translation of those findings into useful information and guidance materials. NCPAW’s work falls into the following three areas:

  • Surveillance: Collect, analyze, and interpret health-related data to better understand factors related to productive aging. Surveillance helps describe the nature of occupational safety and health issues, identify priorities for research and intervention, and evaluate trends.
  • Health Effects and Mechanisms of Aging: Identify and characterize mechanisms and health effects of workplace risk factors and protective factors for productive aging in workers across the working life.
  • Evidence-based Practices and Interventions: Examine the effectiveness of interventions, communication tools, policies, and practices designed to support workers at different points across the working life.

These three areas have been integrated into the NIOSH Strategic Plan. Please check back with us as the NCPAW Team develops specific goals in each of these three areas.

NIOSH Research on Aging Workers

NIOSH supports studies and projects focusing on job safety and health for aging workers—of all ages. You can find information about them by searching NIOSHTIC-2, a database of occupational safety and health publications supported in whole or in part by NIOSH. NIOSHTIC-2 contains nearly 45,000 citations. You can find over 2,000 publications related to job safety and health for aging workers by searching for keywords like “aging,” “age-groups,” “age-factors,” “older workers” and “young workers.”