Bio: Dr. Maria Glymour’s research focuses on how social factors experienced across the lifecourse, from infancy to adulthood, influence cognitive function, dementia, stroke, and other health outcomes in old age. Dementia risk and age-related cognitive decline have been central pillars of her work, along with examining related outcomes such as stroke and Alzheimer’s. She also studies the effect of social inequalities on health throughout the life course, including how social policies can influence people’s risk for less-healthy aging.
She is especially interested in education and other exposures amenable to policy interventions. The health of current cohorts of elderly individuals in the US reflect a lifetime of social exposures, including educational experiences shaped by major changes in schooling policies. Education is specifically interesting because it is a powerful predictor of health and historically, access to education has frequently been restricted based on race, gender, and other socially enforced criteria. One thread of her research examines how changes in schooling laws and school quality in the 20th century might have influenced the health and cognitive outcomes of current cohorts of elderly, including adults subject to race-based school segregation. The results suggest that extra schooling has substantial benefits for memory function in the elderly. She has also worked on the influence of “place” on health, for example, to understand the excess stroke burden for individuals who grew up in the US Stroke Belt. In a project with colleagues including Drs. Rachel Whitmer, Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, and Paola Gilsanz, they are continuing a unique multi-ethnic cohort of older adults in Northern California, with a wealth of lifecourse biological and social data to offer insight into the reasons for racial/ethnic differences in Alzheimer’s and dementia risk (https://rachelwhitmer.ucdavis.edu/khandle).
For more information about Dr. Glymour and her research, please visit: https://profiles.bu.edu/Maria.Glymour
