About Us

CAPS is one of 12 Centers on the Demography & Economics of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Related Dementias in the U.S. CAPS is funded by the Division of Social and Behavioral Research of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and receives support from The University of Texas Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts, and the College of Natural Sciences.

CAPS research is concentrated across three research themes:

• Biosocial Processes: How the dynamic interplay of biological and social processes affects the body, the brain, and overall health and aging outcomes.
• Family and Social Engagement: How demographic patterns and trends affect family and other social ties, the kinds of social ties people have as they age, and how those ties affect health and aging.
• Socioeconomic and Institutional Contexts: How socioeconomic and institutional contexts (e.g., state-level policies, neighborhoods, housing, workplaces, schools) shape biology, health, and the pace of aging.

The mission of CAPS is to galvanize research illuminating how biosocial, relational, socioeconomic, and institutional forces cascade across the life course to generate disparities in health and aging. CAPS’s scientists investigate disparities generated by gender, racial and ethnic group membership, sexual and gender minority identity, geographic location, disability status, and socioeconomic strata.