About the IRTHA Training Program

The IRTHA training program was established in 2008, and since then has successfully trained a total of 24 predoctoral students at the University of Michigan. The IRTHA training program supports two predoctoral trainees per year. Read more information about eligibility and applications.


The IRTHA training program is designed to prepare predoctoral trainees to address the public health challenges posed by our rapidly aging population, by building on our current scientific understanding of the roles of structural, social, and behavioral determinants of health in later-life. This training is embedded within a biopsychosocial model of health as means of organizing relationships among biological factors (e.g., genetic, epigenetic, clinical indicators), psychological factors (e.g., mood, personality, stress, coping behaviors), social factors (e.g., cultural, familial) and structural factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, policies, institutions) over the lifespan. IRTHA includes the following substantive content areas:

  1. Epidemiology of age-associated health conditions: the epidemiology of the most common health conditions that affect older adults as they age, such as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias; cardiovascular disease; cancers; functional limitations and disability; and geriatric syndromes and co-morbidities.
  2. Life course theory and analytical strategies: familiarity with key theories (e.g., cumulative dis/advantage theory) and conceptual models (e.g., chains of risk, critical and sensitive periods) from life course epidemiology, and analytical strategies to empirically test life course models using population data.
  3. Structural, social, and behavioral risk factors in aging: a comprehensive understanding of the current state of science on the structural (e.g., policies), social (e.g., social networks), and behavioral (e.g., lifestyle) determinants of health and how they operate across the life course to affect health during aging.
  4. Biological mechanisms associated with aging: an understanding of the physiological, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms that promote or prevent age-associated changes in health, and their relationships with the life course structural, social, and behavioral determinants of health.
  5. Translation of findings into health-promoting strategies: a basic knowledge of government policies and public health and clinical strategies that have been developed to promote healthy aging and the prevention of disability and specific age-associated conditions.
  6. Research design and statistical methods: training in research designs, statistical methodologies, and causal inference as applied to studies of complex, age-associated health processes, with practical experience applied to population-based aging datasets through collaborative research projects with Faculty Mentors and IRTHA trainee peers.

Sponsoring Agency: The US National Institute on Aging (T32AG027708)