Committee on a National Research Agenda on Aging & Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 
Extending Life, Enhancing Life [PDF ebook] 
A National Research Agenda on Aging

Americans are living longer than ever before. For many, though, these extra years have become a bitter gift, marred by dementia, disability, and loss of independence.Extending Life, Enhancing Life sets the course toward practical solutions to these problems by specifying 15 research priorities in five key areas of investigation: Basic biomedicine To understand the fundamental processes of aging. Clinical To intervene against common disabilities and maladies of older persons. Behavioral and social To build on past successes with behavioral and social interventions. Health services delivery To seek answers to the troubling issues of insufficient delivery of health care in the face of increasing health care costs. Biomedical ethics To clarify underlying ethical guidelines about life and death decisions.Most important, the volume firmly establishes the connection between research and its beneficial results for the quality of life for older persons.