2024

2023

• Salud Pública de México Celebrates 20 Year of MHAS with Special Volume - October 2023: The WHO/PAHO Center has collaborated with a team of Mexican and U.S. partners, to produce a special volume of the Journal SALUD PUBLICA DE MEXICO. The special volume celebrates 20 years of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). The Special Volume includes Editorials from leaders of key co-funders of the MHAS, the NIA/NIH Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Mexican Statistical Bureau (INEGI). The volume includes eleven peer-reviewed papers that use MHAS data.
• Developing an Agenda for Population Aging and Social Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Sept 7-8 Hybrid Workshop - August 2023: Please join us for a two-day public workshop to identify the most promising directions for behavioral and social science research and data infrastructure investment for studying life course health, aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias in low- and middle-income countries.
• INEGI Announces MHAS Wave 6 with Press Conference - July 2023: The Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography, known as the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía or INEGI in Spanish, hosted a press conference to announce the availability of the latest wave 6 of data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) online on July 6th, 2023. Rebeca Wong, Principal Investigator of MHAS, and others gave comments followed by a Q & A session.
• Announcing Wave 6 of the Mexican Health and Aging Study Data Release - June 2023: The MHAS team is pleased to announce the highly anticipated release of Wave 6 (2021) of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). This milestone marks a significant advancement in research on health and aging in Mexico. Researchers worldwide can now access and download the comprehensive MHAS data and companion codebooks, enabling them to delve into the intricate dynamics of health among the Mexican population over a 20-year period.
• The Mexican Health and Aging Study will Extend over 26 Years - May 2023: The NIA/NIH has renewed the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) grant for five more years (2023-2028). MHAS is a national longitudinal study of adults 50 years and older in Mexico. The baseline survey, with national and urban/rural representation of adults born in 1951 or earlier, was conducted in 2001 with five subsequent waves of interviews through 2021.

2022

• 7th Annual Workshop of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) Users - October 2022: The 7th Annual Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) Users workshop was held virtually on October 17-18, 2022. The International Conference is co-organized with the Mexican National Institute of Geriatrics (Instituto Nacional de Geriatría, INGER). The program included 32 oral presentations (18 established investigators and 14 students) representing 17 different institutions in 6 countries. The meeting included attendants from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and The Netherlands. There were 9 presentations from UTMB scholars. More than 110 people registered to attend the conference, with 60-80 attendants per session.
• Dr. Wong Appointed as the Sheridan Lorenz Distinguished Professor in Aging and Health - July 2022: Rebeca Wong, PhD, has been appointed as the Sheridan Lorenz Distinguished Professor in Aging and Health in the School of Public and Population Health through June 2025. Dr. Wong is a Professor in the School of Public and Population Health; Director of the WHO/ PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health; and Associate Director of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center as well as the Sealy Center on Aging.
• Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting - Atlanta - April 2022: The 2022 Population Association of America Annual (PAA) Meeting was held in person and online, April 6-9, 2022. UTMB scholars and past visiting scholars participated in the 2022 Annual Meeting. During this meeting Dr. Downer presented collaborative work with Dr. Samper-Ternent using the MHAS data, “Cohort Differences in Difficulty Performing and Receiving Help for Activities of Daily Living Among Mexican Adults Aged 60–76 in 2001 and 60–76 in 2018”. Also during this meeting, Dr. Sadaf Milani presented another collaborative work with Drs. Wong and Samper-Ternent on “Pain Among Adults Aged 50 Years and Older in the United States and Mexico”.

2021

• 6th Annual MHAS Users Workshop Event, another Virtual Success - October 2021: The 6th Annual Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) workshop for users of the data was co-organized with the Mexican National Institute of Geriatrics (Instituto Nacional de Geriatría, INGER). The International conference was held virtually in October 27-29, 2021. In this edition of the meeting, there were 32 presentations using MHAS data. The workshop had over 100 registered attendees (among them 40 were students) and was held virtually. The meeting included attendants from Mexico, United States, Canada, Chile, Netherlands, and Brazil. THE MEXICAN HEALTH AND AGING STUDY (MHAS) TURNED 20 IN 2021! The Mexican Health and Aging is turning 20! 2021 The MHAS started its first baseline in 2001, following up on a cohort of 15,000 persons aged 50 and older in Mexico. The study has refreshed the sample twice since then and has supported several ancillary studies including for exposure to heavy metals, and blood and saliva samples for the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and biomarkers for other chronic diseases.
  
• Dr. Wong Joins NIH Working Group of the Council on Behavioral & Social Sciences Research (BSSR) Integration - February 2021: Rebeca Wong, PhD was invited by the chair of the NIH Council of Councils to join a newly formed working group of the Council on Behavioral & Social Sciences Research (BSSR) Integration. This special advisory panel of behavioral scientists and other community experts was convened to complete an assessment and provide recommendations on how to better integrate and realize the benefits to overall health from behavioral research at NIH.
• WHO Healthy Aging - January 2021: Beyond Health: United Nations Announces a New Initiative to Improve the Lives of Older People, Their Families and Communities Beyond Health: United Nations announced a new initiative to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities. The initiative approaches different aspects of life including health services as well as other aspects of society such as employment and demand for goods and services. The Decade of Healthy Ageing: a new UN-wide initiative; United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

2020 & Earlier

• 5th Annual MHAS Users Workshop Event a Virtual Success - October 2020: For the 5th time, the annual Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS/ENASEM) seminar for users of the data was organized in collaboration with the Mexican National Institute of Geriatrics (Instituto Nacional de Geriatría, INGER). The workshop had 107 registered attendees and was held for the first time virtually, 28-30 October. There were 25 oral presentations (by 15 established researchers and 10 students) plus 5 small group discussions. A trademark of this meeting is the time devoted for questions and answers. Thirty institutions were represented, including 15 from Mexico and 15 from US, Canada, Netherlands, and Cuba.
• 4th Annual MHAS Meeting - November 2019: The 4th MHAS workshop for users of the data was organized in collaboration with INGER. The International MHAS Users’ conference was held in November 2019 in Mexico City and was hosted by INGER. More than 75 participants attended, including established and junior investigators, whereas students and post-doctoral fellows had the opportunity to attend the workshop. Logo graphic for Mexican Health and Aging Study 3rd Annual MHAS Meeting November 2018: The 3rd annual workshop of MHAS users was held in Mexico City in November 2018, co-hosted by the Center and INGER in Mexico. More than 70 scholars from Mexico and the U.S. attended.
• Collaboration between the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain and the MHAS Study - June 2017: Dr. Richard Mayeux and his team from the Taub Institute at Columbia University visited UTMB. During the meeting the group discussed a future collaboration to complete a genetic profile on a sub-sample from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). The group plans to submit a grant proposal to NIA and continue with their collaboration.
• Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting - Chicago - April 2017: Dr. Wong and other UTMB scholars participated in the 2017 Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting, held April 27-29, in Chicago, Illinois. Presentations related to the Center mission included “Recovery from Physical Limitations Among Older Mexican Adults” and “Modeling Diabetes and Related Medical Care of the Future Elderly in Mexico” (both by scholar Cesar Gonzalez and colleagues); “Effects of Diabetes Duration on Change in Work Status Over Time Among Older Working Adults” (by scholar Miriam Mutambudzi and colleagues), “Age of Migration and Cognitive Impairment-Free Life Expectancy” (by scholar Marc Garcia and colleagues), and “Cognition and Context: Rural and Urban Differences in Cognitive Function Among Older Mexicans” (by scholar Joseph Saenz and colleagues).
• Mexican Congress for Public Health Research- Congreso de Investigación en Salud Pública (CONGISP 2017) March 2017: UTMB scholars participated in the Mexican Congress for Public Health Research, held at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) headquarters, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. A special session highlighted emerging databases for the study of health of the elderly in Mexico, including the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). photo International Conference on Aging in the Americas September 2016: UTMB co-sponsored a scientific conference, the International Conference on Aging in the Americas held in San Antonio, Texas – Contextualizing Health and Aging on Both Sides of the U.S./Mexico Border. The annual meeting webcast and presentations are available online.
• First Annual Meeting for Users of the Mexican Health and Aging Study - November 2016: The Center co-sponsored and participated in the First Annual Meeting for Users of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, hosted by the National Institute of Geriatrics (INGER) in Mexico City. Scholars from Mexico, the U.S., Colombia, and Canada attended. A special session was held, where under-explored topics in aging research were identified and discussed with junior and established investigators.
• Two More Waves Of Longitudinal Study On Aging Will Be Collected - July 2016: Dr. Rebeca Wong, Director of the WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, and collaborators have just been awarded a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Aging (NIA/NIH) to complete two more waves of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). The study will be funded by the NIA/NIH in the United States and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI). The MHAS study began in 2001 and is the first of its kind in developing countries. It provides longitudinal information on about 15,000 Mexicans age 50 and older living in Mexico. It is designed to allow comparisons with other national surveys of older adults like the HRS in the US, and other studies in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Researchers will be able to study topics including current health, chronic conditions and disabilities, cognition, lifestyle, employment, number of children, financial resources, pensions, and type of housing. With the additional waves, the MHAS will reach a cumulative count of approximately 6,500 deaths in the panel, making the study an increasingly powerful data resource to examine mortality and aging. The MHAS has already resulted in more than 220 publications in a broad range of disciplines, including demography, microeconomics, labor economics, public health, epidemiology and health care policy, both in the U.S. and abroad. The data files and documentation are available free of charge at the study website [www. MHASweb.org] in English and [www.ENASEM.org] in Spanish. The study user-friendly website provides a dynamic search engine that allows users to find the list of publications using keywords, type of documents, and/or authors. Users can also use a Forum dedicated to Frequently Asked Questions; the Forum is an open space to share knowledge and ask questions to the MHAS community. The study involves a consortium including UTMB and The University of California, Los Angeles, in the U.S., and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI), the National Institute of Public Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, INSP), and National Institute of Geriatrics (Instituto Nacional de Geriatría, INGer) in Mexico. Other collaborators come from the in Mexico. Dr. Wong, a native of Mexico, joined the UTMB faculty in January 2008. She received a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1987. She is the Peaches & Shrub Kempner Distinguished Professor in Health Disparities, a Senior Fellow of the Sealy Center on Aging, and Director of the UTMB WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health.
• Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean Workshop - May 2015: Prominent aging researchers met in Mexico City in late May 2015 for a workshop titled "Strengthening the Scientific Foundation for Policymaking to Meet the Challenges of Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean." Scientific research was presented on aging in Latin America and the Caribbean and the similarities and differences around the world. The workshop highlighted the main areas where experts believe research is insufficient and where new research is required. Sponsors of the workshop were The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and The National Academy of Medicine of Mexico. Source: nationalacademies.org
• Approval of NIA Grant for MHAS Sub-Sample - August 2015: Rebeca Wong, PhD, director of the WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center at UTMB, received a grant from the NIA for the Mexican Cognitive Aging Ancillary Study. The project applies an in-depth assessment of cognitive impairment to a sub-sample of the MHAS cohort in Mexico in 2016, to estimate dementia prevalence in the population of older adults in Mexico. There will be similar assessments that will be applied in harmonization across several countries.
• Grant for Mexican-American Health - February 2015: Kyriakos Markides, PhD, a professor in the department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health (and an Associated Researcher in the WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center) received a grant from the NIA to continue his longitudinal study on aging in Mexican-Americans (H-EPESE), which begun in 1994. During the course of his research and interviews of the same group of Hispanic-Americans, Markides and colleagues documented the "Hispanic Paradox." The population Markides studied had fewer resources and access to services than other ethnic groups, yet they had a better overall state of health. Once the data has been gathered, it will be available through the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA). Source: Inside UTMB - Markides receives $2.5M for Mexican-American health study
• Sealy Center on Aging re-designated WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center - December 2014: The world experts on aging research at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have again received an international designation acknowledging their niche in an area that grows more complex every day as the elderly population explodes worldwide. UTMB's Sealy Center on Aging has been redesignated by the World Health Organization as a World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) Collaborating Center in Aging and Health. WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centers assist the global organization to investigate public health issues from many angles, ranging from basic science and animal studies to clinical trials, public policy, training and dissemination. UTMB is one of only three institutions in the United States to receive this designation. UTMB's Sealy Center on Aging plays a role as an information resource and a center for innovative, multidisciplinary research on a tremendous range of different aging issues, from stroke and dementia to falls, hospital readmissions, exercise, nutrition, palliative care decision-making, physical therapy, chronic disease, poverty, pensions, and a wide array of other clinical and health-policy related issues.
• 7th Annual International Conference on Aging in the Americas - September 2014: The 7th annual International Conference on Aging in the Americas was held at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus September 23rd through the 25th. The Conference series is funded by an NIA/NIH conference grant (Jacqueline Angel, PI at UT-Austin with co-investigators Kyriakos Markides, Bill Vega and Fernando Torres-Hill). This year UTMB co-sponsored and co-organized the event. Our support came from the P&S Kempner Endowment and the WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health at UTMB. Co-organizers of this year's conference were Rebeca Wong (UTMB) and Fernando Riosmena (CU-Boulder). The theme of this year's conference was: "Health, Social, and Economic Dynamics of Hispanic and Latin American Aging." There were national and international participants: 16 speakers, 3 keynote speakers, and 20 posters. In addition, there was a mentoring session for emerging scholars. Along with the conference there was a one-day Pre-Conference Workshop for users of the Mexican Health and Aging Study data (30 registered participants, mostly pre-doc and post-docs, and a few established researchers). In total, 65 Conference participants were in attendance. The following participants were awarded prizes for their posters: 1st place - Carlos Diaz-Venegas (Post-Doc, UTMB-SCOA), Family Size and Old-Age Well Being: effects of the fertility transition in Mexico 2nd place - Jacqueline Torres (Post-Doc, UCSF), Gender, Migration, and Old-Age Health: effects of the spousal U.S. migration on the health of older Mexican women 3rd - Joseph Saenz (Pre-Doc, UTMB-PMCH and SCOA), Educational Inequalities and Disability Onset among Older Mexicans
• UTMB Researcher Receives NIH Grant on Aging - June 2011: Rebeca Wong, PhD, one of the nation's foremost experts on aging, has been awarded a grant by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health to continue a groundbreaking study in Mexico. Dr. Wong will use the grant to continue a longitudinal aging study she and collaborators started in 2001, the Mexican Health and Aging Study. Her research team will collect current data from thousands of participants and their families about such topics as recent health, chronic conditions and disabilities, lifestyle, medication use, number of children, financial resources, pensions and type of housing. The Mexican Health and Aging Study, the first of its kind conducted in a developing country, has collected information at intervals throughout the last decade on 15,000 Mexicans 50 and older living in Mexico. The study is designed to allow comparisons with other national surveys of older adults in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, including Hispanics living in the United States. It has already resulted in publications in a broad range of disciplines, including demography, microeconomics, labor economics, public health, epidemiology and health care policy, both in the United States and abroad. Source: UTMB Impact Newsletter.