METHODS article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicNeighborhoods and Community: The Role of Built and Social Environment for Healthy AgingView all 4 articles
The Healthy Aging Initiative (HAI): An Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Cohort Study to Characterize and Promote Healthspan in Senior Housing
Provisionally accepted
Yael Koren1,2
On-Yee Lo1,2*
Davide Balos Cappon2,3
Maggie Syme4,5
Heather Andrews2,6Talia Gilfix2Molly Quigley2
John Woolley2
Megan Munn2Benjamin Stein2,7
Brad Manor1,2Thomas Travison1,2
Lewis Arnold Lipsitz2
Alvaro Pascual-Leone2,3- 1Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
- 2Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Boston, United States
- 3Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
- 4Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, United States
- 5Department of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
- 6Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States
- 7New York Medical College, Valhalla, United States
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Objective: We present the rationale, design, and methods for the Healthy Aging Initiative (HAI), a prospective longitudinal cohort study of older adults primarily residing in senior housing, aimed to identify and characterize factors associated with a prolonged healthspan in this population. Methods: The HAI, developed with input from experts at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research and informed by a pilot study, includes a community engaged recruitment method and a yearly assessment encompassing the following domains: sociodemographic information, medical history, lifestyle, psychological well-being, physical and cognitive health, mobility, and sensory health. Recruitment is ongoing and includes participants who are aged ≥55 years recruited from six senior housing communities. A control group of community-dwelling participants living in conventional housing aged ≥55 is also planned. Results: Recruitment remains ongoing. Expected results include characterizing the sociodemographic and health profiles of older adults in independent-living (IL) senior housing, identifying psychological, lifestyle and biological factors associated with a prolonged healthspan, and defining high-risk subgroups to inform future targeted interventions and health promotion strategies. Data will be made publicly available. Discussion: Longitudinal studies on aging often face challenges such as retention and sustained community engagement. Through a collaborative effort among research scientists in the aging field, housing providers, and older adults, this project aims to collect data on aging trajectories among older adults residing in IL senior housing to inform future initiatives that promote prolonged healthspan in this population.
Keywords: Aging, Longitudinal cohort, Cognition, mobility, Healthspan, senior housing
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Koren, Lo, Cappon, Syme, Andrews, Gilfix, Quigley, Woolley, Munn, Stein, Manor, Travison, Lipsitz and Pascual-Leone. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: On-Yee Lo, amylo@hsl.harvard.edu
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