Eligible to Direct Dissertations
Contact Information
Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship (Behavioral Gerontology), Indiana University
PhD (Gerontology), Case Western Reserve University
MSN (Adult Health), Wright State University
BSN, Bethel College
Research Areas
Health & Community Systems
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Ethics
Vulnerabilities
Managing Chronic Conditions
Alzheimer’s Disease / Related Disorders
Caregiving
Cognitive Function
Quality of Life
Self-management
Awards and Honors
Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN)
Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (FGSA) Behavioral and Social Science
Biography
Dr. Lu’s research is anchored in the field of positive health, strength-based and family-centered interventions, especially promoting engagement activities, functional performance, and quality life in older adults with cognitive impairment and their family caregivers. Dr. Lu research was externally funded by the NIA-supported Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center (P30-AG072976-01), NINR (R01 NR018162-01), NIA (R61 AG070265-01), and NIA (R24- AG071471-01).
Recently, Dr. Lu was awarded an R01 grant from the NINR and an R24 grant from the NIA. Her R01 study project entitled “Promoting Reengagement in Daily Meaningful Activity Intervention for Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Caregivers" involves a randomized, controlled trial to study her “Daily Engagement in Meaningful Activity” (DEMA) intervention against a comparison condition to improve outcomes in older persons with mild cognitive impairment and family caregivers. Her R24 study, “The Collaborative for Aging Research and Engagement (CARE),” seeks to engage African Americans ages 45 and older to participate in Clinical Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia studies. Dr. Lu also was awarded the first portion of an R61/R33 grant from the National Institute on Aging for her project titled “Daily Engagement in Meaningful Activities Professional (DEMA-Pro) Intervention for Seniors with Subjective Cognitive Decline Living at Home." In the R61 phase, her research team will establish the organizational structure and processes and pilot test DEMA-Pro in 4 home health service facilities in partnership with Kindred at Home, Gentiva Health Services, a division of Humana that encompasses 400 sites across 40 states.
External Funding
2021-2026. (P30 AG072976-01, NIH, NIA). Indiana University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (To recruit, clinically characterize, and longitudinally follow patients with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, non-Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia and healthy controls, and identify clinically characterized families (PI: Andrew Saykin; Leader of Outreach Recruitment and Engagement Core, Sophia Wang, Co-faculty: Yvonne Lu).
2021-2024. (R24 AG071471-01, NIH, NIA). "The Collaborative for Aging Research and Engagement (CARE)." (Primary Contact PI; PIs: Barnes P, Shih P, & Hill C.)
2020-2024. (R01 NR018162-01, NIH, NINR). "Promoting Reengagement in Meaningful Activity (PRIMA) Intervention for Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Family Caregivers." (PI).
2020-2021, R61 1st year. (R61 AG070265-01 NIH, NIA). "Pragmatic Trials for Dementia Care in Long-term Services and Support Settings" (R61/R33). "The Daily Engagement in Meaningful Activities Professional (DEMA-Pro) Intervention for Seniors with Subjective Cognitive Decline and Living at Home." (PI).
2020-2021. Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Nursing Honor Society, Alpha Chapter, Research Grant. "Experience and Activation of People with Opioid Use Disorder in an Intensive Outpatient Program.” (PI/Mentor).
Publications
Keen, A., Lu, Y., Oruche, U., Mazurenko, O., & Draucker, C. (2022). Activation in persons with mental health disorders: An integrative review. [Manuscript submitted for publication]. School of Nursing, Indiana University.
Keen, A., Lu, Y., & Draucker, C. (2021). “Connecting and disconnecting: Experiences of persons with opioid use disorder in intensive outpatient treatment.” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, e1-e10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108657
Keen, A., Lu, Y., Oruche, U., Mazurenko, O., & Draucker, C. (2021). Activation in persons with mental health disorders: An integrative review. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, e1-e27. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12789
Liu, C.-J., Change, P.-S., Griffin, C. F., Hanson, S., & Lu, Y. (2021). The nexus of sensory loss, cognitive impairment, and functional decline in older adults: A scoping review. The Gerontologist. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnab082
Chang, P.-S., Lu, Y. Y.-F., Nguyen, C. M., Suh, Y., Luciani, M., Ofner, S., & Powell, S. (2020). Qigong exercise in physical and psychological health of middle-aged and older blacks. Western Journal of Nursing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945920959067
Lee,Y., Lu, Y. Y.-F., & Chiou, C.-J. (2019). “Lessons learned from developing web-based educational support blogs for family caregivers in Taiwan.” The Journal of Long-Term Care in Taiwan, 23(3), 217-230. https://doi.org/10.6317/LTC.201912_23(3).0005
Chang, P.-S., Chao, A. M., Jang, M., Knob, T., Oh, B., & Lu, Y. Y.-F. (2018). Intervention fidelity in Qigong randomized controlled trials: A method review. Journal of Geriatric Nursing, 40(1), 84-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2018.07.001
Brown E., Lu Y., Beaven, L., Hansen, K., Carvell, C., Hendrie, H., & Austrom, M. G., (2017). Engagement and quality of life in underrepresented older adults: A community-based participatory research project. Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, 7(1), E7-E9.
Hood, S., Lu, Y., Jenkins, K., Brown, E., Beaven, J., Brown, S., Hendrie, H., & Austrom, M. G. (2018). Exploration of perceived psychological benefits of senior companion program participation among urban-dwelling, low-income older adult women volunteers, Journal of Innovations in Aging, 2(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igy018
Ellis, J. L., Altenburger, P., & Lu, Y. (2017). Change in depression, confidence and physical function among older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy. E1-E8. Oct. https://doi.org/10.1519/JPT.0000000000000143
Description of the video:
[Music] My name is Yvonne Lu. I'm the professor at the School of Nursing. My research is focused on older adult with memory problem and the caregivers. I started interesting research when I was a nurse in Taiwan. And when I was a nurse, at that time, we always followed the textbook. Oh, people tell me, you do this because, da da da. I was always asked question myself, why this work and why this not working? And also was thinking about what can I do to improve care to meet the patients', or even caregivers', needs, and they have better outcome for themselves. After the post-doc training, I mainly focus on the qualitative study, because when I was PhD, I was focused on quantitative study. The reason I focus on qualitative study is I want to have a better understanding the people with memory problems and the caregivers, what kind of experience they experience, and I want to really understand their need and what kind of program I can establish to help them. That's why I came to Indiana University. So I fully understand the research cannot do by myself. I need a working with multiple discipline together. The reason I say the School of Nursing is a good place to work together because the School have long history to mentor the junior faculty, and training, and also we have good resource for the research network. So the nursing faculty in here, we try our best to invest the better care for the community. The ultimate goal is to improve the human life, the quality of life. That's our goal.