Dr. Whittington's research is on the social dimensions of health and health care of older people, especially long-term care. His goal is to understand how the kind and quality of care older people receive affects their overall social and physica
l functioning. To pursue these issues, Dr. Whittington has chosen mainly to study the phenomenon of prescription drug use and misuse by older people as a good example of how individual illness behavior interacts with both the physician's standards of prac
tice and health care policy. While most of his investigations of this issue have focused on the patient's non-compliance with the doctor's orders, he has recently collaborated with colleagues at the Atlanta VA Rehabilitation Research Center on Aging, wher
e he is a Senior Research Health Scientist, on an investigation of the use of both physical restraints and tranquilizers on cognitively-impaired nursing home residents.
Dr. Whittington's involvement with students in gerontology has led to several research collaborations. His recent study with Chris Rosenbloom of the effect of widowhood on the eating behaviors and diet quality of older persons shows the power
ful influence of social factors on this important health behavior. His collaboration with Mary Ball on an ethnographic study of the home health care experiences of poor, black, disabled, elderly clients of the Georgia Community Care Program resulted in th
eir book, Surviving Dependance: Voices of African American Elders, which was published in 1995.
During 1991-1993, while on leave from Georgia State, he worked at NIA (National Institute on Aging) as Senior Research Policy Advisor for the Task Force on Aging Research, a federal body mandated to develop a comprehensive public policy on ag
ing research.
He currently serves as director of the Genontology Center. |
