Hao Luo

Research Assistant Professor

Docent in Statistics, Department of Statistics, Uppsala University

Assistant Professor (Honorary), Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong

Hao Luo photo

Contact information

Email: hao.luo1@uwaterloo.ca

Research interests

My research leverages large-scale electronic medical records to answer critical clinical and policy questions in aging and mental health. I apply state-of-the-art epidemiological, statistical, and machine learning methods to identify modifiable risk factors for adverse health and mental health outcomes and to understand the consequences of major health conditions that are common in older adults. Conditions of particular interest in my research are dementia, depression, multimorbidity and frailty.

Older adults often live with multiple chronic conditions, and these tend to cluster in specific subpopulations rather than to occur randomly. My recent projects use multinational data with decades-long records to identify patterns of multimorbidity in persons with mental health conditions and to trace their trajectories over time. Ultimately, my goal is to enhance our knowledge of the complexity of aging and health by data-linkage across the continuum of care.

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

I am currently not accepting applications for Master and PhD students.

Graduate studies application details 

Teaching interests

  • Health data science
  • Quantitative research methods
  • Aging and mental health

Education

BSc Statistics, Capital University of Economics and Business, China

MSc Statistics, Dalarna University, Sweden

PhD Statistics, Uppsala University, Sweden

Selected publications

See Google scholar for full list of publications.

Luo, H., Chai, Y., Li, S., Lau, W. C., Torre, C. O., Hayes, J., ... & Wong, I. C.* (2024). Psychotropic drug prescribing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among people with depressive and anxiety disorders: a multinational network study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 11(10), 807-817.

Zhou, J., Liu, W., Zhou, H., Lau, K. K., Wong, G. H., Chan, W. C., ... & Luo, H.* (2024). Identifying dementia from cognitive footprints in hospital records among Chinese older adults: a machine-learning study. The Lancet Regional Health–Western Pacific, 46.

Luo, H., Lau, W. C., Chai, Y., Torre, C. O., Howard, R., Liu, K. Y., ... & Wong, I. C.* (2023). Rates of Antipsychotic Drug Prescribing Among People Living with Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA psychiatry, 80(3), 211-219.

Chai, Y., Luo, H.*, Wong, G. H. Y., Tang, J. Y. M., Lam, T.-C., Wong, I. C. K., & Yip, P. S. F. (2020). Risk of self-harm after the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in Hong Kong, 2000–10: a nested case-control study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(2), 135-147.