Expertise
Quality of long-term care, health services research, secondary analysis of survey and administrative claims data.
Research Interests
Assisted living communities, long-term care and dementia care.
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Gerontology - Miami University
- Master of General Studies (M.G.S.), Gerontology - Miami University
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A), Aging Studies - University of South Florida
Biosketch
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. My research focuses on aging and health services, with the goal of informing policies and practices that improve the health and quality of life of older adults receiving care across the long-term care continuum, with a particular emphasis on assisted living. I am trained in gerontology, with additional training in health services research through Brown University’s Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice and the Providence Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. I have expertise in the use of large-scale survey data, including the Health and Retirement Study and the National Health and Aging Trends Study, as well as Medicare claims and other administrative data.
I served as Principal Investigator of an R03 (AG073805) that linked Ohio assisted living survey data with Medicare claims to examine the association between staffing and injury-related emergency department use among assisted living residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). This work demonstrated that residents with ADRD had higher risk of injury-related emergency department use and that the presence of a registered nurse was associated with lower risk. This project provided me with experience examining organizational and workforce characteristics in assisted living and linking facility-level data with individual-level administrative data. I have also authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, more than half of which focus on quality of care in long-term care communities.
Selected Awards and Honors
- 2025 - Center for Excellence in Assisted Living (CEAL) at University of North Carolina (UNC): CEAL@UNC Research Award, Gerontological Society of America Conference
Selected Publications
- Cornell PY, Hua CL, Buchalksi ZM, et al. Using social risks to predict unplanned hospital readmission and emergency care among hospitalized Veterans. Health Serv Res. 2025;60(1):e14353. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.14353
- Hua CL, Patel S, Thomas KS, et al. Evacuation and Health Care Outcomes Among Assisted Living Residents After Hurricane Irma. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(4):e248572. Published 2024 Apr 1. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.8572
- Hua CL, Nelson I, Cornell PY, White EM, Thomas KS. Changes in Nursing Staff Levels and Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits among Assisted Living Residents with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2024;25(8):105087. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2024.105087
- Hua CL, Cornell PY, White EM, Thomas KS. Injury-related emergency department use among assisted living residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2023;71(2):538-545. doi:10.1111/jgs.18207
- Hua CL, Thomas KS, Bunker JN, et al. Dementia diagnosis in the hospital and outcomes among patients with advanced dementia documented in the Minimum Data Set. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022;70(3):846-853. doi:10.1111/jgs.17564
- Smith L, Carder P, Hua C, et al. A National Typology of Health Service Regulation in Assisted Living [published online ahead of print, 2023 Aug 7]. Gerontologist. 2023;gnad109. doi:10.1093/geront/gnad109
- Hua CL, Cornell PY, Zimmerman S, Carder P, Thomas KS. Excess Mortality Among Assisted Living Residents With Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2022;23(10):1743-1749.e6. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.07.023
Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research
- 2023-2026: Memory care in assisted living. Does it improve quality outcomes?
Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Role: Co-investigator - 2023-2026: Private equity in assisted living: Implications for dementia care
Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Role: Co-investigator - 2021-2024: Staffing characteristics and injury-related emergency department use among assisted living residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (R03 AG073805)
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Role: Principal investigator