Lisa Berkman
Harvard University, MA·Public Health & Epidemiology
By 2050, more than three-quarters of the world's dementia cases are expected to occur in low- and middle-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to see a dramatic rise, yet little population data exist there.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Social Science
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
dementia
Alzheimer's disease
mild cognitive impairment
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2028
What they work on
- Continue following the HAALSI Agincourt cohort of older South Africans for 13 years, adding a third HCAP wave with biomarkers and neuroimaging to study how dementia interacts with HIV and cardiometabolic disorders.
- Characterize new cases and progression of mild cognitive impairment and dementia in relation to MRI brain-aging markers and plasma markers such as amyloid-beta, p-tau, NfL and GFAP.
- Launch a nationally representative cohort of about 4,500 South Africans aged 40 and older, and use a validated national HCAP survey to estimate dementia prevalence.
- Examine how educational quality, social connection, self-taught literacy and children's schooling affect cognitive trajectories in older South African adults.
- Evaluate the health effects of policies that reduce salt intake and increase financial security for older adults, and compare results with HRS sister studies.
More about the research
HAALSI (Health, Aging and Dementia in South Africa: A Longitudinal Study) follows older South Africans over time. It asks which biological, social and economic factors, and which public policies, shape dementia, chronic disease and death. Its measures match the US Health and Retirement Study and the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP), a standard set of detailed memory and thinking tests, so results can be compared across countries.
Why it matters
These data could give South Africa its first national estimates of dementia, which would help plan care as the population ages. Identifying modifiable risk factors, such as education, social connection, HIV and heart disease, could guide prevention. Evaluating salt-reduction and financial-security policies could inform health policy in the US and elsewhere.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Phillip Cantu
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Describe informant assessments of cognition, reports from family members or caregivers, in the Mexican Health and Aging Study and examine how they vary between older adults with and without dementia.
John Mafi
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Build governance and infrastructure for rapid, reproducible evaluation of AI clinical decision-support tools for dementia, using UC Health Data Warehouse EHR and imaging data and the ATLAS genotyped biobank.
David Geldmacher
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience
Enroll and follow about 525 community volunteers each year, cognitively unimpaired, with mild cognitive impairment or with mild dementia, at least 40% Black or African American, using standard national tests plus social determinants of health, body composition and actigraphy measures.
The school
Harvard University: 42 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 712 research doctorates a year.
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