In conclusion, it should be noticed that too often research in aging has been the byproduct and not the main line of research efforts. This factor was frequently mentioned by the seminar panelists and by the experts replying to the subcommittee questionnaire. The availability of long-term funds are essential to establishing gerontology as a field in its own right.

BASIC AND POLICY RESEARCH

Two kinds of research are needed if we are to find solutions to the problems of aging that are already weighing so heavily upon us and upon our economy.

One is basic research in the biological and social sciences that will lead to a fundamental understanding of the processes of aging and of the numerous problems facing older people, their families, their communities, and society as a whole.

There is an equally urgent need for detailed statistical and evaluative studies necessary to the formulation of policies and the determination of wise expenditures of public funds. Thus, in considering such major questions as medical care for the aged, it is essential to have complete and reliable information on the number and health status of older people, their incomes, and their insurance coverage as well as on the number and kinds of professional personnel available and the variety and capacity of existing medical care facilities. Such data are now becoming available through such agencies as the Bureau of the Census and the National Health Survey. These and similar sources of basic information must be extended and their data widely disseminated if policies are to be decided on the basis of facts rather than guesses.

A related type of policy research is that of evaluating the assumptions on which policy may be based. Thus, in considering Federal grants for the construction of geriatric hospitals, careful evaluative research must be undertaken to determine whether geriatric hospitals are useful in the first place.

This, in general, is the area of policy research. The subcommittee, as members of a legislative body concerned with the problems of 16 million senior citizens, feels that this area of objective data collection and program evaluation is one requiring immediate emphasis. This type of research was well defined by one of the subcommittee respondents:

In

*** Policy research refers to the pattern and principles of functioning whch are or can be followed by local, State, Federal, or private agencies in meeting their obligations to the aged. It is possible that policy research is similar to so-called evaluation research, which the effort is devoted to evaluating the success or failure of a program to achieve a stated objective.18

response to the questionnaire Prof. Wilbur J. Cohen suggested questions for policy research in the economic and social welfare field: Should the retirement age be increased or lowered? What factors should be given weight in this area?

"Dr. Ewald W. Busse, director, Center for the Study of Aging, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Should the "retirement test" in OASDI be repealed, modified, or retained? What would be the impact on

individuals, and the economy?

Is the test of total disability in terms of "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity" satisfactory or unsatisfactory for older persons? Would an "occupational" test be more satisfactory?

What is an "adequate" income for the aged? What is an "inadequate" income? What is the relationship of these levels to the level of the gross national output?

What changes in tax policy are needed for the aged? How can these be evaluated in terms of the needs of other age groups?

Participants in the subcommittee seminars also pointed to the need for policy research on such questions as:

How would specified types of technological change affect employment opportunities and policies for older persons?

In terms of the health needs of older people, urban transportation requirements and their social and recreational needs, what are the factors involved in providing "adequate" housing for the elderly?

What are the psychological aspects of aging that have pertinence in relationship to the older person's ability to work, to live independently, and to achieve satisfactory relationships with other people?

A

Policy research is moreover essential not only in determining the role of Government in meeting the needs of the aged, it is concerned with the broader scope of these problems within the entire socioeconomic-political complex in which the problems are found. sociologist, in discussing family relationships of older people, commented that under "the impact of industrialization and urbanization the three-generation family has disintegrated as a household and as a unit of economic production." 19 The implications for policy research are clear.

It would appear to the subcommittee that research on policy questions affecting our older citizens should long since have been accepted as a Federal responsibility. It has not been so accepted, except for token efforts. It must be accepted promptly, and fully, if we are to avoid the serious consequences that would be entailed by ill-considered or ill-informed actions directly or indirectly affecting the status of the aging in our society.

19 Ernest W. Burgess, "Family Structure and Relationships," Aging in Western Societies, op. cit., p. 297.

FEDERAL SHARE OF RESEARCH COSTS

Through the enactment of the Social Security Act, through special provisions for the aged in housing legislation, through funds for the care of the medically indigent aged, and through the legislation which the Congress will undoubtedly enact to help assure access to health services for all the aged, the Nation has given ample evidence that the problems of the aged and aging are national problems properly calling for the utilization of national resources. It must, therefore, for many reasons, but primarily for its own protection, assume the responsibility for defraying a major part of the costs of such research.

The subcommittee believes that perhaps the best guide to the role which the Federal Government should play in financing research on gerontology is to be found by analyzing the extent of Governmentfinanced research in its other areas of interest.

In fiscal year 1960, federally supported research for all Government programs amounted to 2.2 percent of the total budget. The Federal agencies undertaking research programs are listed in the table on page 98, as prepared for the subcommittee by the Library of Congress.20 From the table it will be noticed that the Department of Defense spent $705 million for research, or 1.6 percent of its total budget; the National Aeronautic and Space Administration research budget amounted to 38.2 percent of its total expenditures, and the research share of the National Science Foundation (which, of course, is essentially an agency for research) expenditures was 61.7 percent.

The agencies concerned with civilian, as distinguished from defense, activities, also have large amounts available for research. The Department of Agriculture is spending $114 million, or 2.1 percent of its budget, and the Department of the Interior is spending $51 million, or 7.3 percent of its total expenditures. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare devoted 7.4 percent of its total budget to research.

20 This table shows the expenditures for the conduct of research, the total agency expenditures, and research expenditures as a percent of the total agency expenditures. Not included here are research funds appropriated for the Executive Office of the President, which usually has some special studies underway. The Housing and Home Finance Agency has no basic research funds.

Federal expenditures for research, by agency, in the fiscal year 1960

1 Represents estimated obligations based on amounts requested in the Federal budget for fiscal year 1960. 2 Represent funds actually spent in the fiscal year 1960.

Sources:

U.S. Executive Office of the President, Bureau of the Budget. "1961 Federal Budget Midyear Review," Washington, D.C., October 1960, p. 13.

U.S. National Science Foundation. "Federal Funds for Science, VIII. The Federal Research and Development Budget, Fiscal Years 1958, 1959, and 1960." Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1959, pp. 62-63.

U.S. Treasury Department. "Monthly Statement of Receipts and Expenditures of the U.S. Government for the Period From July 1, 1959, Through June 30, 1960." Washington, D.C., pp. 3-8. Prepared for the subcommittee by the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, Dec. 21, 1960.

Data on the proportion of departmental and agency expenditures devoted primarily to research in aging are not available. This is a vacuum which the subcommittee hopes can be filled in the very near future. The only careful breakdown of such expenditures available to the subcommittee was prepared by the National Institutes of Health as of January 31, 1960. Research and training grants in aging amounted to $12 million with commitments as follows:

NIH funds for research and training grants in aging, as of Jan. 31, 1960

Source: Public Health Service Publication No. 740, "Summary of NIH Research Programs in Aging," 1959, p. 9.

Total expenditures by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal 1960 were $348 million, of which primary and secondary research in aging was thus 3.4 percent.

Outside of the NIH, research investment in aging is notable primarily because of its relative invisibility. An estimated additional $1 million was spent by the Social Security Administration in 1960 and smaller sums by such offices as those of Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, and various divisions of the Public Health Service; an additional $1 million was expended by the Veterans' Administration in its program of research in aging. The Housing and Home Finance Agency, the Department of Labor, the Civil Service Commission, and other departments and agencies add little more to the total. A rough estimate of all investment in research in the field of aging will amount to approximately $15 million.

Although the figures are not strictly comparable, it is possible to secure a general picture of the relationship between expenditures for research in aging and the total Federal funds spent or administered for various programs for older persons-including OASDI and OAA funds. The amounts involved are shown in the following table:

Estimated costs of major program areas for older people, 1960

Source: Federal Council on Aging, "Programs for Older People," report to the President, Dec. 6, 1960, p. 68.

These figures thus indicate that a total Federal outlay of $16.4 billion is accompanied by a research investment of some $15 million, or less than one-tenth of 1 percent. The subcommittee believes that no large business would function efficiently with so small a proportion of its funds used to develop new knowledge and to evaluate its operation.

In the field of mental health a National Governors' Conference in 1954 recommended that 10 percent of a State's mental health budget should be devoted to research and training. This proportion has become an achievable standard in many States and has been a major factor in the reduction of State mental hospital populations in the past 5 years.

It is important also to bear in mind that the special problems of conducting research in this area require a complex methodology unique in the field of research and correspondingly more costly. As one authority has put it:

What seems to be clear is that the field of aging presents particular difficulties which operate to increase the cost of research. At younger ages when children and youth are in school or university, numbers of persons are readily available. But the student of aging has to go out and secure his subjects either through the cooperation of industries and social agencies or by house-to-house canvass. *** generally speaking,