Jersey Liang, Ph.D. | Institute of Gerontology

Research Professor, IoG
Professor of Health Management and Policy
School of Public Health
Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center
Institute for Social Research

M3234 School of Public Health II
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
Tel: (734) 936-1303
Fax: (734) 764-4338
Email: jliang@umich.edu

Dr. Liang’s research interests focus on health related quality of life and geriatric care from a cross-cultural comparative perspective. His current research centers around three major themes. First, Liang is interested in issues related to the conceptualization and measurement of quality of life at the individual level and the estimation of health expectancy at the population level. Second, he is interested in modeling the dynamics of health and health care in old age. The third interest concerns the comparative analysis of geriatric care management and policy. Since the mid–1980s, Liang has been actively engaged in comparative studies of health, health care, and aging in the U.S. and several countries in East Asia. Longitudinal data bases involving population based samples of elderly people have been established and maintained in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and China. In addition, Liang has collaborated in studies of self-management of heart disease, biomechanics of mobility, and geriatric medicine, respectively, at the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health, Engineering, and Medicine. Liang’s teaching interests include international health systems, global aging and health, and methods of health services research. As a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Liang has received two National Institute on Aging MERIT awards. He was the editor for Social Sciences, Journal of Gerontology, and has served on study sections at the National Institutes of Health and the editorial boards of a number of professional journals.

Publications:

Liang, J., McCarthy, J., Jain, A., Krause, N., Bennett, J.M., and Gu, S. (2000). Socioeconomic Gradient in Old Age Mortality in Wuhan, China. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. 55B:S222-S233.

Liang, J., Krause, N.M., and Bennett, J.M. (2001). Social exchange and well-being: Is Giving better than receiving? Psychology and Aging, 16: 511-523.

Liang, J. (2001). Assessing cross-cultural comparability in mental health among older adults. Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 7: 21-30.

Liang, J., Liu, X. and Gu, S. (2001). Transitions in functional status among older people in Wuhan, China: Socioeconomic differentials. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 54: 1126-1138.

Krause, N., Liang, J. Sugisawa, H., Kim, H., and Sugihara, H. (2002). Religion, death of a loved one, and hypertension. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 57B: S96-S107.

Brown, W.J., Liang, J., Krause, N., Akiyama, H., Sugisawa, H., and Fukaya, T. (2002). Transitions in living arrangement among older adults in Japan: Does health make a difference? Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 57B: S209-S220.

Liang, J. Bennett, J., Krause, N., Kobayashi, E., Kim, H., Brown, W.J., Akiyama, H., Sugisawa, H., and Jain, A. (2002). Old age mortality in Japan: Does the socioeconomic gradient interact with gender and age? Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (in press).

Blaum, C.S., Ofstedal, M.B., and Liang, J. (2002). The relationship of low cognitive performance to task-specific disability. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science (in press).

Harada, K., Sugisawa, H., Kobayashi, E., & Liang, J. (2002). Factors related to income change among the elderly: Dynamics of poverty based on a longitudinal survey. Japanese Sociological Review (in press).