Research Projects

Project Investigators: Principal Investigator Molly Rosenberg, Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington; and Co-Investigator Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.
Funding: National Institute on Aging
Summary: Using HAALSI data, this study will determine how cumulative, randomized, and quasi-randomized socioeconomic exposures in mid-to-later-life affect memory decline and ADRD risk in later-life, by linking three unique population data sources in South Africa. These contributions will provide robust evidence on ADRD etiology and will serve as sentinel findings for prevention strategies not only in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is currently little data outside of this study, but also for guiding interventions in ADRD prevention programs globally.

Project Investigators: Co-Principal Investigators Adam Brickman, PhD, Professor of Neuropsychology, Columbia University; Victor Mngomezulu, MB BCh, FcRad, MBA, Head of Clinical Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Ryan Wagner, MBBCh, MSc, PhD, Research Fellow, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Heath Transitions Research Unit; and Co-Investigator Thomas Gaziano, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Funder: National Institute on Aging

Summary: This project aims to incorporate the use of portable MRI scanning into the HAALSI cohort in rural South Africa, beginning with the HAALSI-HCAP sub-study, which includes participants deeply phenotyped through clinical assessments, biomarkers, survey data, medical examinations, and conventional high-field MRI scanning, and subsequently expanding to the full HAALSI cohort.

Project Investigators: Co-Principal Investigator Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; and Co-Principal Investigator Thomas Gaziano, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Summary: The goal of this longitudinal research project is to study the drivers and consequences of HIV and non-communicable diseases (including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cognitive impairments) in an aging population in South Africa.