Anna Dahl
Postdoc in Epidemiology of Ageing
Future Leader of Ageing Research in Europe (FLARE) fellow
Education
PhD in Gerontology
Short description of research interest
More than 60% of the European adult population is overweight or obese (hence forth overweight), including persons aged 65 and above. Although the negative effect of midlife overweight is well known, the implication of overweight on late life health is less well understood and need to be further researched. I use population-based studies that originate from the Swedish Twin Registry (SATSA, OCTO-Twin, and Gender) containing data ranging over fifty years and including 2061 persons to study the association between weight trajectories over the life span and the following outcomes in late life: physical and cognitive health, functional ability, and mortality. Further, causal pathways between overweight and health such as genes and life style factors are studied. This project gives a unique opportunity to achieve a holistic view on weight and health over the life span and I posit that a life course perspective on weight is crucial in understanding the implications of the obesity epidemic on the ageing population.
Five selected publications
Body Mass Index across midlife and cognitive change in late life.
Int J Obes, in press
Being overweight in midlife is associated with lower cognitive ability and steeper cognitive decline in late life.
J Gerontol A Bio Sci Med Sci 2010; 65A, 57-62.
Overweight in midlife and later risk of dementia: a 40-year follow-up study.
Int J Obesity 2009:33;893-898.
Overweight and obesity in old age are not associated with greater dementia risk.
J Am Ger Soc 2008;56:2261-2266.
Agreement between self-reported and measured height, weight, and body mass index in late life: a longitudinal study with 20 years of follow-up.
Age Ageing 2010;39:445-451.
