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Sarah Szanton, Ph.D., C.R.N.P., F.A.A.N.
Sarah Szanton, Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, studies health disparities in older adults, working to eliminate health and quality-of-life differences for seniors across socioeconomic and racial lines. A goal of Dr. Szanton’s research is to help seniors “age in place.”
At the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, she has developed a research program to study the role of stressors in health disparities in older adults. She has also developed an intervention to prevent nursing home admission by providing low-income, home-bound seniors in the Baltimore area with in-home services such as handyman work, nursing and occupational therapy to help them function better at home. The aim is to foster increased mobility and capability for individuals to successfully function in their homes for as long as possible by avoiding potential issues that might require costly hospitalizations or other out-of-home care, while also reducing the societal burden of age-related chronic disease.
Szanton completed undergraduate work in African-American Studies at Harvard University. She holds an M.S.N. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She has had funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research at NIH, and the John A. Hartford Foundation.