At age 53 – a few decades older than most of his colleagues – Ronald Bedford, sporting a white beard and a contagious upbeat personality, is studying in the “greatest atmosphere in the world” as a Ph.D. candidate in occupational epidemiology in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

This is Bedford’s third stint in the world of higher education at the UI after getting a relatively late start compared to his fellow students. He received his bachelor of science in leisure studies in 1990 at age 33 and completed his master’s degree in occupational and environmental health in 2009. He began his doctoral work in 2010.

During that time, he worked 24 years as a paramedic in Cedar Rapids before being laid off, which inspired him to begin graduate school in 2005 at age 47.

For Bedford, there has been no looking back.

“I don’t think anyone is ever too old to learn or improve themselves,” Bedford said. “Unless you are wildly happy and satisfied with where you are and what you’re doing, it can always get better. We should never stop learning … never stop trying to learn. This is the best thing in the world for improving yourself as a person.”

Bedford, who lives in Cedar Rapids, is a gifted researcher. He won the 2010 University of Iowa L.B. Sims Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for his thesis, “Utility of Death Certificate Data in Predicting Cancer Incidence.”

As part of his thesis work, Bedford served as a graduate research assistant on the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAAP) Munitions Works Study – an epidemiological health study conducted by researchers at the UI College of Public Health, under contract to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Bedford made a key contribution to the study, requesting death certificates from various state bureaus of vital records and assisting with security and maintenance of the data. The data were used to determine whether IAAAP workers are at a higher risk for overall cancer incidence as well as certain site-specific cancers, compared to unexposed Iowa workers.

Bedford’s research of 1,795 workers at the plant, who were registered by the Iowa Cancer Registry and died between 1973 and 2005, showed that death certificates under-reported cancer incidence by 10 to 78 percent, depending on the site. Bedford concluded that death certificates are useful predictors of the incidence of cancers with shorter survival times and among patients diagnosed earlier in life.

“There are a lot of problems with death certificates. A lot of it is a good faith sort of thing,” Bedford said. “Funeral directors are required to fill out the death certificate and physicians are required to certify the death, but nobody goes back and checks if either of them does it completely. It’s not uncommon for things to be left out.”

Bedford’s work also helped researchers in the study determine whether overall mortality or cause-specific mortality (e.g., diseases of the heart, liver, kidney, lung, etc.) rates are higher among IAAAP workers.

R. William Field, professor of occupational and environmental health and epidemiology and Bedford’s mentor, said his student’s research is a landmark paper on the topic of death certificates.

“It is the first peer-reviewed study that I am aware of that quantifies the predictive value of death certificates to identify the occurrence of a wide range of cancer types in the U.S. population,” said Field, one of the study’s principal investigators. “This information is crucial in assessing the validity of current and past epidemiologic studies that relied on death certificates to identify incident cancers and serves as a guide to determine the valid use of cancer data identified from death certificates.”

Bedford’s investigation into the validity of death certificates is of personal importance after his mother died in April at age 86. Bedford said his mother’s underlying cause of death was listed as aspiration pneumonia. He feels congestive heart failure should have been listed as the cause of death.

“Not many people should be dying of aspiration pneumonia by itself. Congestive heart failure, on the other hand, is a huge problem,” Bedford said. “And if all those people aren’t being counted, then we don’t know how big the problem is. That’s the whole issue with death certificates. If they’re not done accurately, we don’t know how big the problem is. That is what my research was trying to get at.”

When Bedford’s mother was alive, she requested updates from him about his grades and if he had any tests coming up. Bedford valued that support from her.

Bedford received the Sims Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award less than two weeks before his mother passed away.

“She was very proud,” Bedford said.

As Bedford pursues his Ph.D. into his 50s, he experiences great enjoyment every day he interacts with his younger colleagues.

“It really shaves a lot of years off just getting to hang with those people who are young and so full of energy and ambition,” Bedford said.