Cognitive Aging and Dementia

This program of research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01AG057800; PI: Yang) and focused on life course process of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD), sex differences and social disparities therein, and underlying biosocial mechanisms. For details, please see the project website. 

Highlights of two innovations:

  1. Empirical approaches to linking longitudinal datasets for modeling cognitive decline with aging and its association with dementia risk from young to old age.
  2. Novel biomarkers of inflammation and infection (interleukin or IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α, CMV, HSV-1, H. Pylori) produced from archived blood samples in the Add Health data and integration of biomarkers from multiple national cohort studies to examine social and biological factors influencing cognitive aging and ADRD risk.

Representative Publications:

Walsh, C. E., Yang, Y. C., Oi, K., Aiello, A. E., Belsky, D. W., Harris, K. M., & Plassman, B. L. (2022). Age profiles of cognitive decline and dementia in late life in the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study (ADAMS). The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 77, 1880–1891.

Stebbins, R. C., Yang, Y. C., Reason, M., Aiello, A. E., Belsky, D. W., Harris, K. M., & Plassman, B. L. (2022). Occupational cognitive stimulation, socioeconomic status, and cognitive functioning in young adulthood. SSM – Population Health, 17, 101024.

Stebbins, R. C., Noppert, G. A., Yang, Y. C., Dowd, J. B., Simanek, A., & Aiello, A. E. (2021). Immune function, cortisol, and cognitive decline & dementia in an aging Latino population. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 133, 105414.

Chanti-Ketterl, M., Stebbins, R. C., Obhi, H. K., Belsky, D. W., Plassman, B. L., & Yang, Y. C. (2022). Sex differences in the association between metabolic dysregulation and cognitive aging: The Health and Retirement Study. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 77(9), 1827–1835.

Aiello, A. E., Momkus, J., Stebbins, R. C., Zhang, Y., Martin, C., Yang, Y. C., Gaydosh, L., Hargrove, T., Zeki Al-Hazzouri, A., Manly, J., & Harris, K. M. (2025). Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive function before middle age in a U.S. representative population-based study. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 45, 101087.


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