News & Events

Workshop on Determinants of Adult Mortality, Morbidity, and Healthy Aging in LMICs

March 7, 2025 – Virtual via Zoom

Section 1: Cognitive Aging

• Cognitive Aging Across the Life Course in a Low-Income Context: Evidence from Malawi (Namrata Ray)
• Cognitive Aging in Ghana: Results from a pilot study implementing the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (Iliana V. Kohler)
• Age at menopause and cognitive function and decline among middle-aged and older women in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 2011-2018 (Muqi Guo – Paper)

Section 2: Mexico and Aging

• Intergenerational Education and Cognitive Performance among Older Adults: A Comparison Between Rural Mexico and South Africa (Erika Meza)
• Combining individual- and population-level data to derive education-specific mortality rates for Mexico (Ana C. G ́omez-Ugarte)

Section 3: Social Environment

• Early-Life War Exposure and Later-Life Chronic Pain in Vietnam: Risk, Resilience, and Timing (Rui Huang)
  
• Family Status & Mortality Among Older Adults In Brazil (Flavia C.D. Andrade – PowerPoint Presentation)
• Loneliness is not an evolutionary mismatch: Isolation and Social Environment in Two Small-Scale Amerindian Populations (M. Katherine Sayre & Michael D. Gurven)

Section 4: Chronic Disease

• A Decade of Blood Pressure Trends in Malawi (Helene Purcell)
• Cash Transfers and Metabolic Syndrome in South African Women: A Longitudinal Analysis from theHAALSA Indepth Cohort (Maria M. Klein – Paper) / (PowerPoint Presentation)
• Overall and cause-specific mortality and associated risk factors among middle-aged and older rural South Africans: Findings from the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in Rural South Africa (HAALSI) (Chodziwadziwa W Kabudula)

Section 5: Socioeconomic Status

• Socioeconomic and clinical predictors of all-cause mortality among older adults in India from 2017-2024 in a nationally representative, longitudinal study (Emma Nichols)
• Impact of Adult Child College Education on Parents’ Mortality: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the 1993 Korean Higher Education Reform (Ah-Reum – PowerPoint Presentation)
• Cross-national Comparison of Disability Across Education Gradients in Latin American Older Adults (Margarita Osuna)

RNA Profiling in Population Health Research

September 5, 2024

DBS Approaches to Neurodegenerative Markers

June 6th, 2024

Workshop on Determinants of Adult Mortality, Morbidity, and Healthy Aging in LMICs

February 23 & March 1, 2024 – Virtual (Zoom)

A workshop co-sponsored by the UC-Berkeley Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging-CEDA (William Dow) and the USC/UCLA Center for Biodemography and Population Health-CBPH (Eileen Crimmins, Teresa Seeman, Jennifer Ailshire and Steve Cole)

This is the 7th annual workshop designed to share leading research methods and findings on comparative patterns and determinants of adult mortality, morbidity, and healthy aging in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). We welcome both LMIC-specific studies as well as comparisons with high-income countries.

The goal is to build a robust evidence base for understanding the drivers of cross-national adult health patterns, especially in populations with unusually high or low adult mortality. The expanded availability of longitudinal HRS-type surveys in LMICs makes this an opportune time to gather a network of researchers using such data to study adult health patterns and determinants, in order to share innovative methods, new results, and ideas for the most promising research agenda going forward.

Call for Papers: NIA-Sponsored Biomarker Network Meeting

April 17, 2024—One Day Prior to the 2024 Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Conference, Hyatt Regency Columbus, OH

Organizers: Jessica Faul, Colter Mitchell, and Eileen Crimmins

The Biomarker Network at the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan is soliciting abstracts for presentations at the Biomarker Network Meeting, which will take place in person on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 (one day before PAA 2024). The Biomarker Network is a National Institute on Aging sponsored project to develop an interdisciplinary group of scientists dedicated to improved measurement of biological risk for late life health outcomes in large representative samples of populations.

Workshop on Determinants on Adult Mortality, Morbidity, and Healthy Aging in LMICs

February 24, 2023
8:30am to 2:30pm PST
Virtual: Zoom format

A virtual workshop co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging (CEDA) and the USC/UCLA Center for Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH)

Social Genomics – Gene Expression Workshop

Date: September 12-13, 2022
Location: UCLA Luskin Conference Center

Instructor: Steve Cole, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences,
Director of the Social Genomics Laboratory
The University of California, Los Angeles
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Virtual Comparative Workshop on Adult Mortality Determinants in Low and Middle-Income Countries

February 25, 2022 via Zoom

Agenda

• The Impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy in the US and Brazil: Disparities and Dependencies
  • Marcia Castro, Susie Gurzenda, Cassio M Turra, Sun Kim, Theresa Andrasfay, Noreen Goldman
  • Presenter: Theresa Andrasfay (USC)
• Household wealth and life expectancy in India: 1990-2016
  • Presenter: Aashish Gupta (University of Pennsylvania)
• Immigrant adaptation and the ‘impacts’ of Mexico-U.S. migration on healthy aging: a binational examination
  • Fernando Riosmena, Jenna Nobles, Jacqueline Torres, Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, Emma Aguila
  • Presenter: Fernando Riosmena (University of Colorado at Boulder)
• Regional Variation in Mortality in Colombia
  • Margarita Osuna, Jennifer Ailshire
  • Presenter: Margarita Osuna (USC)
• Open Discussion

Remote Biomarker Collection in the COVID-19 Era: Strategies for respondent self-collection

Oct 27, 2020 | 11am-12pm PDT via Zoom

Agenda

• Introduction & Background
• Overview of remote blood collection strategies
  • Presenter: Steve Cole
  • Dried blood spots (mailable self-draw kits; HemaSpot HF/SE/HD)
  • Microfluidic samplers (Tasso OnDemand, TAP 2nd Gen)
  • Logistics & infrastructure (mailing/transport, self-collection instructions/videos, participant support, regulatory issues, logistics services)
• Suggestions for Self-Collection of Dried Blood Spots
  • Presenters: Heather McCreath & Jessica Crocker
• Optimizing self-collected blood samples
  • Presenter: Steve Cole
  • Sample collection protocols, with tips & tricks for both DBS & microfluidics
  • Customized instruction videos, Zoom “call centers”/”office hours”
• Analytic performance: what works, and what doesn’t
  • Presenter: Steve Cole
  • Correspondence of DBS / microfluidic samples to venipuncture “gold standard”
  • Issues to manage (sample volume, humidity, temperature)
  • Interpretive caveats (SNR/power adjustment, LLD, fragile/untrustworthy analytes, venous vs capillary blood)
  • Experienced assay labs (volume, system-level QC)
• Temperature control
  • Presenter: Jessica Faul
  • Cold-chain maintenance (Health & Retirement Study salivary antibody example)
  • Logistics services (e.g., UPS Healthcare)
• Q&A 
• Adjourn

Measuring Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Webinar

Oct 22, 2020 | 11am-12:30pm PDT via Zoom

Agenda

• Introduction
• COVID19 Serology Introduction & General Principles
  • Presenter: Mark Wener
• Quantitative Serological Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Dried Blood Spots
  • Presenter: Thomas McDade
• SARS Co-V-2 Antibody Tests
  • Presenter: Bharat Thyagarajan

Virtual Biomarker Network Meeting | Day One Recording

June 16, 2020 via Zoom

Agenda

• Welcome
  Teresa Seeman and Eileen Crimmins, USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health
  Lisbeth Nielsen, National Institute on Aging
• Biomarkers and Stress | Moderator – Eileen Crimmins
  How do war and stress contribute to subjective age? An analysis of biological, psychosocial and life course stress factors in the Vietnam Health and Aging Study
  Presenters: Kim Korinek, Eleanor Brindle, Jefferson Schmidt, Tran Khanh Toan, Zachary Zimmer
• Cortisol concentrations in hair are reduced 14 years after exposure to a major natural disaster
  Presenters: Ralph Lawton, Elizabeth Frankenberg, Teresa Seeman, Eileen Crimmins, Cecep Sumantri, Duncan Thomas
• Effect of violence crime in adolescent’s activity space on perceived and biological stress
  Presenters: Jodi L. Ford, Christopher R. Browning, Kammi Schmeer, Catherine Calder, Beth Boettner, & Jacob Tarrence
• The role of early life environments in U.S. socioeconomic disparities in adult chronic inflammation
  Presenters: Stephanie Koning, Thomas McDade
• Questions – Managed by Teresa Seeman and Steve Cole
• Wrap-up

Virtual Biomarker Network Meeting | Day Two Recording

June 19, 2020 via Zoom

Agenda

• Welcome
  Eileen Crimmins and Teresa Seeman
• Biomarkers and Health Outcomes | Moderator – Teresa Seeman
  Lifespan adversity and epigenetic age acceleration in the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)
  Presenters: Cathal McCrory, Giovanni Fiorito, Paolo Vineis, Rose Anne Kenny
• Associations between changes in vitamin D levels and health in later life: evidence from the English longitudinal study of aging
  Giorgio Di Gessa, Paola Zaninotto, Cesar Messias de Oliveira Giorgio Di Gessa, Paola Zaninotto, Presenters: Cesar Messias de Oliveira
• The Interaction of age and mild cognitive impairment on brain morphometry: Neuroimaging analysis from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India: Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD)
  Presenters: Brenton Keller, Jorge Jovicich, Arthur Toga, Jinkook Lee
• Biomeasures in the time of COVID19: remote self-administered collection
  Presenters: Martha K. McClintock, Joscelyn Hoffmann, Hannah You, Elbert Huang, Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, Jay Pinto, L. Phillip Schumm and Kristen Wroblewski
• Questions – Steve Cole and Eileen Crimmins

Virtual Biomarker Network Meeting | Day Three

June 22, 2020 via Zoom

Agenda

• Telomere Measurement and Results | Moderator – Steve Cole
• Telomere Research Network
  Presenter: Stacy Drury
• Telomere length estimates, lab to lab comparisons, and sample handling effects: Progress reports from multiple labs
  Presenters: Jude Carroll, Daniel Notterman Colter Mitchell, Jessica Faul 
• Demographic and developmental patterns in telomere length across adolescence
  Presenters: Lauren Gaydosh, Colter Mitchell, Daniel Notterman, Lisa Schneper, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Brandon Wagner, Kalsea Koss, and Sara McLanahan
• Questions – Teresa Seeman and Eileen Crimmins 
• Next Steps – for the Biomarker Network