Teferi Mekonnen Yitayew

Postdoctoral Researcher

Teferi Mekonnen Yitayew was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Population Aging Research Center in the Spring of 2024. He holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Oslo, an MPH in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Gondar, and a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Mekelle University. His research centers around causal inference, life-course epidemiology, social inequalities in chronic noncommunicable diseases and their determinants.Teferi

Tell us a little about your research overall. What questions are at the core of your research?

I am an epidemiologist interested in the application of advanced causal inference methods to understand the causal mechanisms of social inequalities in chronic non-communicable diseases and their determinants, including dementia and cognitive impairment. 

I came to Penn from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Department of Physical Health and Aging, where I am a Postdoctoral Fellow. I am working on the “Changing Lives, Changing Brains” project funded by the NIH. Penn is one of the participating institutions. The project explores how exposure to sociodemographic lifestyle behaviors, markers of chronic disease, and occupational history in early and middle adulthood impacts dementia and cognitive impairment later in life. I do this research using a large, ongoing population-level dataset with linkage to different registries in Norway. 

During my fellowship period, I will be integrating life-course epidemiologic analysis with advanced causal inference methods to understand the effect of exposure to early and midlife risk factors for the risk of developing dementia and cognitive impairment among adults aged 70 years and older.

What brought you to Penn? 

Professor Hans-Peter Kohler is part of the “Changing Lives, Changing Brains” project and invited me to officially become a visiting researcher at Penn’s Population Aging Research Center in the Spring. During my stay, I collaborated with Professor Kohler from Penn, Professor Vikesh Amin from Central Michigan University, and the ‘’Changing Lives, Changing Brains’’ project members in Norway and our research is ongoing.

I am an epidemiologist interested in the application of advanced causal inference methods to understand the causal mechanisms of social inequalities in chronic non-communicable diseases and their determinants, including dementia and cognitive impairment. 

How do you feel that being at the Population Studies Center and having access to its people and resources, have uniquely impacted your research? 

I got the opportunity to work on ageing research with a pioneer demographer and learned more about aging research in high, low-, and middle-income country settings. 

To learn more about recent and past research by Dr. Teferi Mekonnen Yitayew see Google Scholar.