What We Do
At the 丁香园AV Health & Wellbeing Lab at 丁香园AV, we investigate how psychosocial factors shape health and wellbeing across the adult lifespan. To do so, we use an interdisciplinary approach focusing on bio-behavioural pathways linking social relationships to health, including health behaviours (e.g., physical activity) and health biomarkers (e.g., levels of the stress hormone cortisol).
Our methods include the analysis of longer-term health and wellbeing trajectories based on data collected over many years as well as investigating daily life dynamics based on experiential data collected over a period of days/weeks.
HEALTH-RELEVANT EVERYDAY SOCIAL CONTEXTS IN OLD AGE
We document health-relevant correlates of positive and negative social contexts in older adults including social isolation, solitude, and loneliness.
Psychosocial contexts of stress physiology
We establish novel links between older adults鈥� stress physiology (e.g., as measured by salivary cortisol levels) and daily psychosocial experiences.
Long-term social and health transitions
We use long-term longitudinal data, for example as collected by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, to examine determinants of social and health changes in mid- to late-life.
Wearables to assess health-relevant parameters
We use portable devices and wearables to collect data on older adults鈥� psychological states, behaviour, physiological responses, and environmental context in real-time, as they go about their daily lives.