Tse-Chuan Yang

Associate Professor, Sociology Link

Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

I am a demographer and sociologist who investigates how social and physical contexts contribute to individual health outcomes and behavior, especially older adults.  Directly related to the CAPS theme of health and well-being and the emphasis on place and specific populations, one of my current research projects examines the relationship between the risk of opioid use disorder and residential environment factors, such as socioeconomic conditions and social isolation, among older adults. This project uses Medicare claims data maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to identify older Medicare beneficiaries with opioid use disorder and then merged beneficiaries’ information to either ZIP code or county level variables from decadal censuses or American Community Survey. Another project that fits CAPS’s theme is about older adults’ living alone status and cognitive function. This project draws data from 2010-2018 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and distinguishes the cumulative effect of living alone on cognitive health from the contemporary one. This project further examines whether residential characteristics, such as walkability, modify the relationship between living alone and cognitive health among older Americans. The findings of these projects will offer nuanced insight into how residential environment and living arrangement affects older adults’ health.