Heather Allore, Ph.D., M.S.

• Research Scientist
• Director, Biostatistics Core

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 Publications

1. 1. Fried TR, Bradley EH, Towle VR, Allore HG. Understanding seriously ill patients’ preferences for treatments and their outcomes. NEJM 2001; 346:1061-1066
2. 2. 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. NEJM 2002; 347:1068-1074.
3. Byers A, Allore HG, Peduzzi PN, Gill TM. Application of negative binomial modeling for discrete outcomes: A case study in aging research. J Clin Epid 2003; 56:559-564.
4. Gill TM, Allore HG , Holford TR, Guo Z. Hospitalization, restricted activity, and the development of disability among older persons. 2004 JAMA 292:2115-212
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Zeiss CJ, Allore HG, Towle V, Tao W. CNTF Induces Dose-Dependent Alterations In Retinal Morphology In Normal And Rcd-1 Canine Retina. Exp Eye Res. 2006; 82(3):395-404.
9. Hardy SE, Allore HG, Guo Z, Dubin JA, Gill TM. The Effect of Prior Disability History on Subsequent Functional Transitions. J Gerontol: Med Sci. 2006; 61(3):272-7.
10. Hardy SE, Allore HG, Guo Z, Dubin JA, Gill TM. The Effect of Prior Disability History on Subsequent Functional Transitions. J Gerontol: Med Sci. 2006; 61(3):272-7.
11. Gross CP, Guo Z, McAvay GJ, Allore HG, Young M, Tinetti ME. Multimorbidity and survival in older persons with colorectal cancer. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006; 54(12):1898-904.
12. van Duin D, Mohanty S, Thomas V, Ginter S, Montgomery RR, Fikrig E, Allore HG, Medzhitov R, Shaw AC. Age-Associated Defect in Human TLR-1/2 Function. J Immunol. 2007;178(2):970-5.
13. 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
14. van Duin, Allore HG, Mohanty S, Ginter S, Newman FK, Belshe RB, Medzhitov R, Shaw AC. Induction of Costimulatory B7 Molecules Predicts Influenza Vaccine Response in Young and Older Adults. 2007. J Infectious Dis. 2007:195:1590-1597
15. 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 Epid. 2007; In Press