Variations in Secondary Conditions,
Risk Factors and Health Care Needs
for Four Groups of Individuals Aging with
Cerebral Palsy, Polio, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Stroke
MARGARET L. CAMPBELL, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Since April of 1990, Dr. Campbell has served as the Research Director for
the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Disability,
located at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center (RLAMC) in Downey, California.
In this capacity, she directed the recently completed Later-Life Effects
of Early-Life Onset of Disability; a group comparison study of polio and
stroke survivors with age- and sex-matched controls.
Current research activities involve serving as the principal investigator
on two National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)
funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTC) projects. One
is a large survey study of Variations in Secondary Conditions, Risk Factors
and Health Care Needs for Four Groups of Individuals Aging with Cerebral
Palsy, Polio, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Stroke. The second is a smaller in-
depth Assessment of Social Support Systems, Lifestyle Practices and Cultural
Beliefs in Moderating the "Natural" Course of Aging with Spinal
Cord Injury (conducted under the auspices of the RRTC on Aging with Spinal
Cord Injury, RLAMC).
Prior to her affiliation with RLAMC, Dr. Campbell was a Research Associate
at the Andrus Gerontology Center of the University of Southern California,
where she served as the project director for the "Longitudinal Study
of Three Generations." This study examined the effects of aging and
societal change on the quality of family relations and psycho-social well-being
of the older generation for approximately 2,000 individuals, who were surveyed
first in 1972.
Educational Background:
Dr. Campbell received her doctorate of philosophy in 1989 in Human Development
and Family Studies, with minors in Social Organization and Change and Quantitative
Research Methods, from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She earned her
masters degree in 1977 in Social Relations from Lehigh University (Bethlehem,
PA), and her undergraduate degree in 1967 in Sociology from the University
of California at Davis.
Substantive Specialties:
As a "sociologist of aging and human development", with specialties
in gerontology and medical sociology, Dr. Campbell has lectured and written
extensively on numerous topics, including: (1) the effects of the "longevity
revolution" on the status of American families; (2) application of
the life course perspective to the study of aging with disability; (3) secondary
conditions associated with long- term physical disabilities such as polio,
rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury and stroke; (4) the stress-buffering
effects of social support in coping with disability; and (5) implementing
the 'participation action research' model, a new paradigm for rehabilitation
and disability researchers, that focuses on involving consumers as decision-
makers in all stages of the social research process.
Rehabilitation Research and Trianing Center- Aging with Disability
Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center
7601 E. Imperial Highway
Downey, CA 90242
(310)401-7402
FAX: (310)401-7011
email: mic@rcf.usc.edu