Promoting informed decision-making and actions for the best health and well-being.
Latest News
Pepper Center News
Congratulations to the newest wave of Pepper Scholars! These outstanding junior faculty members will receive two years of funding and mentorship to pursue their aging-related research agendas.
Health Literacy in the News
NPR discusses with Dr. Michael Wolf of the Center for Applied Health Research on Aging (CAHRA) and the Northwestern Pepper Center about how "medical jargon has long been a problem"
CAHRA Receives RRF Service Grant
CAHRA investigators were recently awarded a service grant from the RRF Foundation for Aging to develop, implement, and evaluate persuasive COVID-19 vaccine messaging for older, English and Spanish-speaking Latinx adults.
Our Mission
The Center for Applied Health Research on Aging (CAHRA), a member center of Northwestern's Institute for Public Health and Medicine, is committed to promoting informed decision-making and actions leading to optimal health and well-being among individuals and families over the life span.
Michael Wolf, MA, MPH, PhD, Director, Center for Applied Research on Aging
Our Research
CAHRA unites faculty across clinical disciplines and from cognitive, behavioral, social and public health sciences toward a common focus on: (1) Investigations of cognitive, psychosocial, community and health system factors that affect a person’s ability to manage health, and (2) The design, pragmatic evaluation and dissemination of effective, equitable, scalable healthcare and public health interventions seeking to influence health-related behaviors and outcomesOur center includes six key research programs and has a current portfolio of 16 active projects. Read more about our work here: