“I Never Considered That”: The Impact of Engaging Older Adults in Research and Strategies for Making It Work

TL;DR

This paper discusses how involving older adults in research improves study design and challenges biases, through a program that trained and engaged older adults as research partners.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel approach to involving older adults as co-researchers and advisors in aging-related studies, enhancing research relevance and design.

Findings

Advisory sessions improved research relevance, design, and recruitment.

Older adults provided valuable feedback to researchers on aging-focused priorities and methods.

Engaging older adults challenged researcher biases and informed more inclusive research agendas.

Abstract

Researchers often lack training and resources to meaningfully engage older adults in research. As a result, those most impacted by aging research- older adults- are often left out of the design and implementation. The Aging PCOR Learning Collaborative, a PCORI-funded project co-lead by Collective Insight and the LeadingAge LTSS Center@UMass Boston, encouraged researchers to engage older adults as partners so research agendas and scholarly activities better reflect age-inclusive perspectives. The Learning Collaborative engaged older adults and researchers to design educational tools and trainings to build researchers’ engagement capacity, reaching more than 800 aging-focused researchers, PhD students, and others in the aging research community to do just that. Among these activities was an Aging Research Advisory program, which provided opportunities for older adults to inform researchers and students on their aging-focused research activities. Ten older adults participated in introductory research training. They then hosted 8 advisory sessions from Fall 2023 to Summer 2024, providing feedback to 4 researchers on their research priorities and methods. In Spring 2025, Collective Insight and the LeadingAge LTSS Center@UMass Boston partnered with older adult research advisors to co-investigate the Aging Research Advisory program process and outcomes. In this presentation, we share our findings from this co-investigation, including the impact of advisory sessions on improving research relevance, design, and recruitment while also challenging researcher bias. We will also explore the specific strategies used to engage older adults as research advisors as well as co-researchers and co-writers when analyzing this model for older adult engagement across higher education.