Dr Heather Booth
Areas of expertise
- Demography 1603
- Mortality 160304
- Stochastic Analysis And Modelling 010406
- Population Trends And Policies 160305
- Social Change 160805
- Family And Household Studies 160301
- Pacific Peoples Health 111715
- Sociology And Social Studies Of Science And Technology 160808
Research interests
HEATHER'S PUBLICATIONS CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
Heather’s research is situated in the DEMOGRAPHY OF AGEING. This includes:
- The future of structural population ageing through dynamic stochastic modelling. Heather is an international expert in stochastic modelling and forecasting of demographic rates and populations.
- The role of social networks with family and friends in the well-being of older people, and the socio-demography of ageing and longevity.
- Socio-demographic determinants of self-rated health and well-being at older ages.
- Socio-demographic determinants of Internet use for social networking among older people.
- Understanding mortality patterns and transitions through modelling and decomposition.
- The future of longevity and mortality at very old ages, and its implications.
- Microsimulation modelling of family structures: ageing in context.
Biography
Heather Booth is Associate Professor of Demography at the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute (ADSRI) in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. She has over 30 years' experience in demographic research in developed and developing countries.
Heather leads the ADSRI Group on Longevity, Ageing and Mortality (GLAM).
In 2012, Heather won the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) Award for Excellence in Supervision. Heather also served as ANU Convenor of Graduate Research in Demography in 2011.
Heather is Founding Editor of the Journal of Population Research (JPR), an international peer-reviewed journal launched in 2000, which she edited from 2000 to 2006.
Heather began her career at the London School of Economics before moving to the USA to join the POPLAB program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her doctoral research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Heather developed the Booth Standard for use with the Brass Relational Gompertz Model of fertility.
After completing her doctorate, Heather undertook research on ethnic minority populations in Britain and Western Europe. In 1984, Heather relocated to Nouméa, New Caledonia to take up a position as demographer with the South Pacific Commission, working throughout the Pacific Islands. She later worked as an international consultant for a wide range of funding agencies. After migrating to Australia, Heather joined the ANU Demography and Sociology Program in 1998.
Heather has published on a wide range of topics including demographic modelling and forecasting, population ageing, socio-demography of ageing and longevity, mortality decomposition, Pacific Island demography and the timing of family formation, suicide among Pacific Island youth, European migration and ethnic minority populations, demographic estimation and gender statistics.
HEATHER'S PUBLICATIONS CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
Researcher's projects
Heather leads the Social Networks and Ageing Project (SNAP) funded under an ARC Linkage grant (2010-2012).
Heather is a Chief Investigator on the $2million NHMRC/ARC Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) project (2007-2012) and leads the development of the DYNOPTA microsimulation model of the future of age-related disability in Australia (DYNOPTA-SIM).
Heather is Associate Investigator in an ANU node of the $12.7million ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) coordinated by UNSW (2011-2017).
Heather jointly leads (with Zhongwei Zhao) the Interdisciplinary Microsimulation Project (IMP) (2011-2014) funded by the CASS Interdisciplinary Research Fund.
Heather coordinates ongoing collaborative research in demographic forecasting with colleagues at Monash University, Macquarie University, the University of Southampton and the Paris-based Institut national d'etudes demographiques. This highly cost-effective research uses publicly available data. Several small grants have facilitated this collaborative research over the last twelve-years.
Heather leads the ADSRI Group on Longevity, Ageing and Mortality (GLAM).
Available student projects
Prospective students in ageing research may be eligible for an additional scholarship of $5000 per annum under association with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research.
Opportunities exist with the Social Networks and Ageing Project (SNAP) to use existing and prospective survey data on social networks and successful ageing for doctoral research. A national sample of >2000 persons aged 50+ includes data on face-to-face and non-face-to-face communication with family members and friends, and multiple indicators of successful ageing. Online methods of communication are also explored in the survey. Opportunities also exist under the SNAP project to study online social networking behaviour among older persons (please see page for Dr Robert Ackland). There are no new SNAP scholarships for this research.
In addition, students wishing to undertake research in the following fields are encouraged to contact Heather (heather.booth AT anu.edu.au):
- socio-demography of ageing (for example, informal aged care; contemporary family structures and the older person; distance to kin and well-being; increasing longevity and its implications; intergenerational influences on social connectedness; repartnering in later life; the impact of widowhood and divorce in later life)
- applications in demographic modelling and forecasting (for example, comparative mortality forecasts, fertility modelling and forecasting, consistent population forecasting)
- mortality and longevity (for example, comparative mortality patterns; mortality at the oldest ages; centenarians)
- demographic microsimulation (for example, the supply and demand for informal care; intergenerational family structures)
- other demographic and social science research on ageing
Current student projects
Two doctoral research projects are funded under the Social Networks and Ageing Project:
- The role of social connectedness in the retirement process
- Methods for social network analysis
Other current doctoral student projects include:
- Australian mortality in the 19th and early 20th centuries
- Social support at older ages in Vietnam
- Modelling Long Term Care in Australia: What Place of Insurance?
- Healthy Life Expectancy in teh Philippines
Past student projects
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Gender, ethnicity and wellbeing of the elderly in Indonesia
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Cardio-vascular mortality in Chinese cities The experiences and pathways of discontinuing school children in Fiji |
Publications
- DOWNLOAD HEATHER'S PUBLICATIONS
- Booth, H 2013, 'Asia's silver revolution', East Asia Forum Quarterly (EAFQ), vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 14-15. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/04/11/asias-silver-revolution/
- Hyndman, R, Booth, H & Yasmeen, F 2013, 'Coherent mortality forecasting: the product-ratio method with functional time series models', Demography, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 261-283.
- Booth, H and the SNAP Team. 2013, Staying connected: Social engagement and wellbeing among mature age Australians. Canberra: National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre.
- Booth, H & Rioseco P 2013, Older Australians providing informal care. Fact Sheet 11. Canberra: National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre.
- Booth, H & Rioseco P. 2012, Residential mobility and reasons for moving. Fact Sheet 7. Canberra: National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre.
- Anstey KJ, Kiely KM, Booth H, et al. (2011). 'Indigenous Australians are under-represented in longitudinal ageing studies', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 35(4), pp. 331-336.
- Booth, H & Rioseco Lopez, M 2011, Journey time to visit family and friends among National Seniors Australia members. Fact Sheet 2. Canberra: National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre.
- Shang, HL, Booth, H & Hyndman, R 2011, 'Point and interval forecasts of mortality rates and life expectancy: a comparison of ten principal component methods', Demographic Research, 25(5) 173-214.
- Booth, H 2010, 'Ethnic differentials in the timing of family formation: A case study of the complex interaction between ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and marriage market pressure', Demographic Research, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 153-190.
- Booth, H 2010, 'The evolution of epidemic suicide on Guam: context and contagion', Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 1-13.
- Anstey KJ, Byles JE, Luszcz MA, Mitchell P, Steel D, Booth H, Browning C, Butterworth P, Cumming R, Healy J, Windsor TD, Ross L, Bartsch L, Burns RA, Kiely KM, Birrell CL, Broe GA, Shaw J, & Kendig H. (2010). 'Cohort profile: The Dynamic Analyses to Optimize Ageing (DYNOPTA) project'. International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 39(1), pp. 44-51.
- Booth, H 2009, 'The changing face of the Australian population: growth in centenarians', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 190, no. 3, pp. 165-166.
- Booth, H & Tickle, L 2008, 'Mortality modelling and forecasting: a review of methods', Annals of Actuarial Science, vol. 3, no. 1&2, pp. 3-43.
- Hyndman, R & Booth, H 2008, 'Stochastic population forecasts using functional data models for mortality, fertility and migration', International Journal of Forecasting, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 323-342.
- Booth, H & Zhao, Z 2008, 'Age Reporting in the CLHLS: A Re-assessment', in Zeng Yi, Dudley L. Poston, Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky, Danan Gu (ed.), Healthy Longevity in China: Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Dimensions, Springer, New York, pp. 79-98.
- Anstey, K.J., Butterworth, P., Booth, H., Windsor, T.D., Burns, R., Simons, L.A., Sargent-Cox, K., Byles, J.E., Luzcz, M.A., Gibson, R., von Sanden C., Christensen, H., Shaw, J.E., Broe, G.A., Browning, C., Mitchell, P., Cumming, R.G., & Kendig, H. (2007) The Value of Comparing Health Outcomes in Cohort Studies: An Example of Self-Rated Health in Seven Studies including 79653 Participants. Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol 26 No 4, 194-200.
- Duncan, R, Booth, H, Zhang, G et al 2006, 'The Young and the Restless: Population Pressures in the Pacific', in (ed.), At Home and Away: Expanding Job Opportunities for Pacific Islanders Through Labour Mobility, The World Bank, Washington, pp. 28-45.
- Booth, H 2006, 'Demographic Forecasting: 1980 to 2005 in Review', International Journal of Forecasting, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 547-581.
- Booth, H, Hyndman, R, Tickle, L et al 2006, 'Lee-Carter Mortality Forecasting: A Multi-Country Comparison of Variants and Extensions', Demographic Research, vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 289-310.
- Booth, H, Tickle, L & Smith, L 2005, 'Evaluation of the Variants of the Lee-Carter Method of Forecasting Mortality: A Multi-Country Comparison', New Zealand Population Review, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 13-34.
- Booth, H 2004, 'On the importance of being uncertain: Forecasting population futures for Australia', People and Place, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1-12.
- Booth, H & Tickle, L 2004, 'Beyond three score years and ten: Prospects for longevity in Australia', People and Place, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 15-27.
- Booth, H 2003, 'The changing dimensions of mortality', in Khoo, Siew-Ean & McDonald, Peter (ed.), The transformation of Australia's population: 1970-2030, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 104-128.
- Booth, H 2003, 'Structural adjustment of the marriage market in Fiji', Development Bulletin (Canberra), vol. 62, pp. 118-121.
- Booth, H & Tickle, L 2003, 'The future aged: new projections of Australia's elderly population', Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 196-202.
- Booth, H, Smith, L & Maindonald, J 2002, 'Applying Lee-Carter under conditions of variable mortality decline', Population Studies, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 325-336.
- Booth, H 2001, 'Demographic techniques, data adjustment and correction', in Neil J Smelser, Paul B Baltes (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2001), Elsevier, Oxford, UK, pp. 3452-3456.
- Booth, H 2001, 'Trends in mean age at first birth and first birth intervals in the Pacific Islands', Genus, vol. LVII, no. 3-4, pp. 165-190.
- Booth, H & Hayes, A 2000, 'Sixteen Years of JAPA: A Content Analysis of the Journal of the Australian Population Association', Journal of Population Research, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 199-212.
- Evans, A, Booth, H & Cashel, K 2000, 'Sociodemographic determinants of energy, fat and dietary fibre intake in Australian adults', Public Health Nutrition, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 67-75.
- Booth, H 1999, 'Gender, power and social change: youth suicide among Fiji Indians and Western Samoans', Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 108, no. 1, pp. 39-68.
- Booth, H 1999, 'Pacific island suicide in comparative perspective', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 433-448.
- Booth, H 1992 The Migration Process in Britain and West Germany: Two Demographic Studies of Migrant Populations. Aldershot: Avebury, xx + 234pp.
- Castles, S, Booth, H, Wallace, T 1984 Here for Good: Western Europe's New Ethnic Minorities. London: Pluto Press, xii + 259pp.
- Joshua, H, Wallace, T, Booth H 1983 To Ride the Storm: the 1980 Bristol 'Riot' and the State. London: Heinemann Educational Books, vii + 221pp.
Projects and Grants
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (Secondary Investigator)
- The role of online social networks in successful ageing: benefitting from 'who you know' at older ages (Primary Investigator)
- Learning How to Age Well from Australian Longitudinal Studies of Ageing (Secondary Investigator)
