Sarah Beth Laditka is Professor Emerita, Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
I am an internationally recognized expert on active life expectancy, a central public health indicator that measures life expectancy and the proportions of life with and without disability or disease. The United States and countries throughout the world use active life expectancy to assess population health, and to develop and evaluate health policies.
Researchers throughout the world use methods that I helped to develop to study active life expectancy, which use panel survey data combined with Markov models and microsimulation. Microsimulation creates simulated populations that mirror the characteristics of actual populations. With the simulated populations researchers can follow individuals and groups throughout life. This provides new knowledge about the dynamics of health and disability, as well as factors that may help to increase access to health care, address health disparities, and promote well-being. Microsimulation addresses complex research questions that cannot be studied effectively using more conventional methods.
My current research examines life expectancy, active life expectancy, disability, chronic disease, and developmental disability using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID, 1968-present), the longest running household survey in the world. These data allow me to follow individuals through all life stages, and families both across households and through several generations. I have published more than 150 peer-reviewed research studies, and have mentored students as coauthors on more than half of those publications. My CV includes my publications.
I am a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. I serve on the Editorial Boards of: Disability and Health Journal, Journal of Women & Aging, and Journals of Gerontology Social Sciences.
My research has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. I have substantial professional practice experience in both public health and the personal health care system. I have supervised numerous program evaluations for public health agencies, schools of medicine, and health care organizations. In academic leadership, I led Master of Health Administration (MHA) Programs, 2003 to 2011, as the MHA Program Director, mentored more than 650 graduate students of health administration, and led successful re-accreditation initiatives involving the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) at the University of South Carolina (2005) and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2010). I have mentored more than 45 doctoral students in research.
I received an A.B. from Colgate University, an A.A.S. (Registered Nursing), from SUNY Morrisville, a B.P.S. (Health Services Management) from SUNY Polytechnic Institute, an M.B.A. (Finance) from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and an M.A. (Economics) and a Ph.D. (Public Administration) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
