M. Maria Glymour, SD
Chair and Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Epidemiology

SD, Harvard School of Public Health
AB, University of Chicago



Research Interests
- Alzheimer's disease and related causes of cognitive aging and dementia
- Social determinants of health and health equity
- Social policies and health
- Causal inference in social epidemiology and dementia research

My 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. I am 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 especially interesting because it is such 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 my 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. Our results suggest that extra schooling has substantial benefits for memory function in the elderly. I have 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, we 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).

A separate theme of my research focuses on overcoming methodological problems encountered in analyses of social determinants of health, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia. For many reasons, research focusing on lifecourse epidemiology as well as cognitive aging introduces substantial methodological challenges. Sometimes, these are conceptual challenges, and clear causal thinking can help! Many of these challenges are being addressed in the MELODEM (MEthods in LOngitudinal research on DEMentia) initiative, an international group of researchers focusing on analytic challenges in research on dementia and cognitive aging. MELODEM has working group phone calls on the first and third Thursdays of the month, open to all (https://sites.bu.edu/melodem/). My group works with numerous colleagues on methods to improve measurement, including crosswalking across data sets. For example, in work with Dr. Zeki Al Hazzouri, we are linking data sets with detailed information at different lifecourse periods -- e.g., childhood, early adulthood, and later adulthood -- to better evaluate long-term effects of exposures at specific sensitive ages. In work with Dr. Cathy Schaefer, Ron Krauss, and many others, we are fielding emulated trial designs in the large, diverse Kaiser Permanente Northern California cohort. This setting is exceptional for emulated trial designs because of the large size, long follow-up, and combination of high-quality clinical data plus social and genetic information for large groups of study participants.

I have advocated the use of causal directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) as a standard research tool to represent our causal hypotheses and help elucidate potential biases in proposed analyses. In other cases, the methodological problems require more analytical solutions that have been developed elsewhere in epidemiology or in other disciplines, but are rarely applied to these research questions. Instrumental variables analyses of natural or induced experiments are one promising example. Genetic variations have recently been advanced as possible instrumental variables to estimate the health effects of a wide range of phenotypes, an approach sometimes called “Mendelian Randomization.” Using genetic polymorphisms as instrumental variables could provide a very powerful tool for social epidemiology, but the inferences from such analyses rest on strong assumptions. Thus I am currently working with a team to explore approaches to evaluating the plausibility of those assumptions in applications for social epidemiology.

Students and post-doctoral fellows interested in research collaborations related to my work are welcome to send me an email directly or contact Robin Hyatt, rshyatt@bu.edu, who handles my calendar.


Improving causal inference in Alzheimer's Disease prevention research on modifiable risk factors: the Triangulation of Innovative Methods to EndAD (TIME-AD) project
09/15/2024 - 08/31/2029 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Aging
1P01AG082653-01A1

A Multilevel Investigation of Migration and Dementia Risk Among Mexican Americans
09/01/2024 - 05/31/2029 (Subcontract PI)
Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York NIH NIA
1R01AG089174-01

Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans
08/15/2023 - 05/31/2028 (Subcontract PI)
University of California, Davis NIH NIA
2R01AG050782-03

Health, Aging and Dementia in South Africa: A Longitudinal Study (HAALSI) -- Project 1 Dementia
06/01/2023 - 05/31/2028 (Subcontract PI)
President and Fellows of Harvard College dba Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health NIH NIA
5P01AG041710-10

Social isolation and dementia risk: cross-national and temporal comparison
11/01/2024 - 10/31/2027 (Key Person / Mentor)
PI: Ruijia Chen, ScD
Alzheimer's Association


Epidemiology of Age-related Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Brain Pathology in a Multiethnic Cohort of Oldest-Old
07/01/2023 - 06/30/2027 (Subcontract PI)
University of California, Davis NIH NIA
5R01AG056519-04

Lifecourse health, cerebral pathology, and ethnic disparities in dementia
06/01/2023 - 05/31/2026 (Subcontract PI)
University of California, Davis NIH NIA
5R01AG052132-06

Lifecourse Stressors and Social Disparities in Cognitive Aging: The Roles of Social Networks and Sleep Disturbance
09/03/2023 - 08/31/2025 (Co-Investigator)
PI: Ruijia Chen, ScD
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5K00AG068431-06

Community Empowerment, Vascular Risk, and ADRD Disparities: Translating Research to Public Policy
09/01/2023 - 08/31/2025 (Key Person / Mentor)
PI: Kendra D Sims, PhD
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5K99AG083121-02

The confluence of extreme heat cold on the health and longevity of an Aging Population with Alzheimers and related Dementia
06/01/2023 - 05/31/2025 (Subcontract PI)
President & Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of Harvard Medical School NIH NIA
1RF1AG074372-01A1

Showing 10 of 17 results. Show All Results


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

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  1. Sims KD, Glymour MM, Ncube CN, Willis MD. Invited commentary: improving spatial exposure data for everyone-life-course social context and ascertaining residential history. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Mar 04; 194(3):573-577.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39098825; PMCID: PMC11879526; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwae244;
     
  2. Kim MH, Frøslev T, White JS, Glymour MM, Ilango SD, Sørensen HT, Pedersen L, Hamad R. Kim et al respond to "Dispersal policies, neighborhood disadvantage, and refugee health in a Nordic context". Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Mar 04; 194(3):649-650.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39086093; PMCID: PMC11879508; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwae241;
     
  3. Kim MH, Frøslev T, White JS, Glymour MM, Ilango SD, Sørensen HT, Pedersen L, Hamad R. Mediating pathways between neighborhood disadvantage and cardiovascular risk: quasi-experimental evidence from a Danish refugee dispersal policy. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Mar 04; 194(3):635-644.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38932569; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwae158;
     
  4. Li DK, Cheng D, Parks A, Rieu-Werden ML, Polekhina G, Mahady SE, Glymour MM, Chan AT, Shah SJ. Functional disability after clinically significant extracranial bleeding: a secondary analysis of the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) Trial. J Thromb Haemost. 2025 Feb 20. PMID: 39986609
     
  5. Ackley SF, Wang J, Chen R, Hill-Jarrett TG, Rojas-Saunero LP, Stokes A, Shah SJ, Glymour MM. Methods to crosswalk between cognitive test scores using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Cohort. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Feb; 21(2):e14597.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40000573; PMCID: PMC11859661; DOI: 10.1002/alz.14597;
     
  6. Ferguson EL, Zimmerman SC, Jiang C, Choi M, Meyers TJ, Hoffmann TJ, Gilsanz P, Oni-Orisan A, Wang J, Whitmer RA, Risch N, Krauss RM, Schaefer CA, Glymour MM. Independent associations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Feb; 21(2):e14575. PMID: 40008914; PMCID: PMC11863358; DOI: 10.1002/alz.14575;
     
  7. Kezios KL, Colvin CL, Grasset L, Duarte CD, Glymour MM, Zeki Al Hazzouri A. 20-Year income volatility and cognitive function in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) cohort: A replication and extension of CARDIA findings. Soc Sci Med. 2025 Mar; 368:117798. PMID: 39929027
     
  8. Kim MH, Miramontes S, Mehta S, Schwartz GL, Kim YJ, Yang Y, Hill-Jarrett TG, Cevallos N, Chen R, Glymour MM, Ferguson EL, Zimmerman SC, Choi M, Sims KD. Extracting Housing and Food Insecurity Information From Clinical Notes Using cTAKES. Health Serv Res. 2025 Jan 28; e14440.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39871689
     
  9. Meza E, Romero KRF, Allen IE, González HM, Glymour MM, Torres JM. Offspring education and cognitive health: A comparison between Hispanic and White older adults in the United States. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Feb; 21(2):e14523. PMID: 39868479; PMCID: PMC11848152; DOI: 10.1002/alz.14523;
     
  10. Wu Y, Hayes-Larson E, Zhou Y, Bouteloup V, Zimmerman SC, Pederson AM, Planche V, Seamans MJ, Westreich D, Glymour MM, Gibbons LE, Dufouil C, Mayeda ER. Statistical harmonization of versions of measures across studies using external data: Self-rated health and self-rated memory. Ann Epidemiol. 2025 Feb; 102:86-90. PMID: 39800088; PMCID: PMC11881778; DOI: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2025.01.002;
     
Showing 10 of 498 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 498 publications over 24 distinct years, with a maximum of 52 publications in 2022

YearPublications
19911
19921
20042
20052
20062
20077
200812
20096
20104
201118
201226
201318
201432
201524
201633
201730
201830
201934
202035
202147
202252
202341
202430
202511

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Can We Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias?

The Brink 11/12/2024

Collaborative initiative seeks to uncover ways to reduce Alzheimer’s and dementia risk

News Medical 9/30/2024

How HDL 'Good' Cholesterol Might Raise Dementia Risk

US News & World Report 10/5/2023

FDA Gives Full Approval for New Alzheimer's Drug, But Will It Help Black Patients?

BET 7/10/2023

SPH to Welcome Maria Glymour as Chair of the Department of Epidemiology

Boston University School of Public Health 12/2/2022

2018 American Journal of Epidemiology: American Journal of Epidemiology Reviewers of the Year Award
2017 University of California, San Francisco, Academic Senate: Mentoring Award - Associate Professor Level
2016 American Journal of Epidemiology: American Journal of Epidemiology Reviewers of the Year Award
2013 Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health: Columbia University Psychiatric- Neurological Epidemiology Early Investigator Award
2012 Harvard School of Public Health: Mentoring Award
Contact for Mentoring:

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