Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Eva Kahana

Eva Kahana, PhD
Director
Case Western Reserve University, USA

Biography

Eva Kahana, Ph.D., is Robson Professor of Humanities, Sociology, Applied Social Science, Medicine and Nursing, and is the Director of the Elderly Care Research Center.  She received her doctorate in human development from the University of Chicago in 1968, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Yeshiva University in 1991.  Dr. Kahana has published extensively in the areas of stress, coping and adaptation of aged. 
As a medical sociologist and gerontologist, Dr. Kahana has long been interested in the resilience of older people and has noted the ability of older adults to adapt to increasing frailty and social losses.  Her research has been conducted in the framework of the Elderly Care Research Center that she developed in collaboration with her husband, Boaz Kahana, who is Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University.  Her currently funded projects include:  Health Care Partners in Cancer Prevention and Care of the Aged (NCI), and Elders Marshalling Responsive Care and  Enhancing Quality of Life in the Final Years (NINR).  Dr. Kahana has co-authored or co-edited several books, including:  Holocaust Survivors and Immigrants, Altruism in Later Life, Family Caregiving Across the Lifespan, and Stress and Health Among the Elderly.  She has also published over 150 scientific articles.
Dr. Kahana is the recipient of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Distinguished Career Award (2011), Distinguished Mentorship Award (1987), and the GSA Lawton Award for her outstanding contribution to applied gerontology (1997). She also received the 1997 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Aging and the Life Course of the American Sociological Association (ASA).   In 2000, she was Chair of the ASA Section on Aging & the Life Course.  She has been a Mary E. Switzer Distinguished Fellow of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation. 
 

Research Interest

Social organization of health care institutions;
late life sequelae of social stress;
coping and adaptation among the elderly;
environmental influences on aging individuals;
institutionalization; migration;
intergenerational family relationships;
medical sociology;
health care partnerships;
self-care;
health care communication;
cancer prevention and care.