Heather Allore

Research Scientist
Director, Biostatistics Core
Section of Geriatrics

Research Interests

As the Director of the Biostatistics Core of the Yale Program on Aging/ Pepper Center, Dr. Allore oversees the design and analysis of research for both intervention trials and epidemiologic studies. Dr. Allore is interested in the complicated design and analytic issues involved in multifactorial intervention projects, an area in which the Yale Program on Aging is considered the leading research group. The development of strategies for determining the contribution of individual components of multicomponent intervention strategies allows Program on Aging investigators to delve further into the concept of standardly–tailored multicomponent interventions for multifactorial geriatric syndromes. Other areas of her applied research include developing strategies for handling missing data that frequently occurs in studies of older persons, applying extended Cox models for state transitions in geriatrics, such as frailty and disability that consist of multiple discrete states in which both onset and recovery are possible, and determining the mechanisms of action of an effective multi–component intervention. She is a co–investigator on several NIH grants in areas of clinical geriatric research. Current research includes functional and mobility disability in the elderly, differences in immune system function of between young and older persons, age–related macular degeneration, multiple morbidity analysis, and falls in the elderly.

She is currently engaged in developing a subdiscipline of biostatistics within the American Statistical Association that focuses on training and methodological development in geriatrics called “gerontologic biostatistics.” This discipline would train biostatisticians for conducting collaborative clinical research with geriatricians and gerontologists in elderly populations and provide the basis for the development new statistical methodology.

Selected Recent Publications

• Tinetti ME, Baker DI, King M, Gottschalk M, Murphy TE, Acampora D, Carlin BP, Leo-Summers L, Allore HG. Effect of dissemination of evidence in reducing injuries from falls. N Engl J Med. 2008 359(3):252-61.
• Lin H, Guo Z, Peduzzi PN, Gill TM, Allore HG: A semiparametric transition model with latent traits for longitudinal multistate data. Biometrics. 2008 64(4):1032-42.
• Hardy SE, Allore H, Studenski SA. Missing Data: A Special Challenge in Aging Research. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009
• Allore HG, Murphy TE. An Examination of Effect Estimation in Factorial and Standardly-Tailored Designs. Clin Trials 2008; 5:121-130.
• Allore HG, Tinetti ME, Gill TM, Peduzzi PN. Experimental Designs for Multicomponent Interventions Among Persons With Multifactorial Geriatric Syndromes . Clin Trials 2005;2: 13–21.
• Peduzzi P, Guo Z, Marottoli RA, Gill TM, Araujo K, Allore HG. Improved self–confidence was a mechanism of action in two geriatric trials evaluating multi–component physical interventions. J Clin Epid. 2007; 60(1):94–102 .
• Van Ness PH, Murphy TE, Araujo KLB, Pisani MA, Allore HG. The use of missingness screens in clinical epidemiologic research has implications for regression modeling. J Clin Epidemiol. 2007 Dec;60(12):1239-45.
• Allore HG, Tinetti ME, Araujo KL, Hardy S, Peduzzi PN. A case study found that a regression tree outperformed multiple linear regression in predicting the relationship between impairments and social and productive activities scores. J Clin Epid. 2005; 58(2):154–161.
• Gill TM, Baker DI, Gottschalk M, Peduzzi PN, Allore HG, Byers A. A program to prevent functional decline in physically frail, elderly persons who live at home. . N Engl J Med. 2002; 347:1068–1074.
• Fried TR, Bradley EH, Towle VR, Allore HG. Understanding seriously ill patients’ preferences for treatments and their outcomes. N Engl J Med. 2001; 346:1061–1066.

Education:	B.S. SUNY College of Technology, 1989 M.S. Cornell University, 1993 Ph.D. Cornell University, 1996
Training:	Postdoc Epidemiology: Cornell University, 1999

Contact

Mailing Address
Section of Geriatrics
Department of Internal Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
20 York Street
New Haven, CT 06510

E-mail
heather.allore@yale.edu

Office Phone
203-737-1892

Fax
203-785-4823