My thesis
The world’s population is aging rapidly, with older adults projected to substantially outnumber children below five years of age within the next few decades. An increasing aging population highlights the growing need to promote overall health and well-being to ensure a good quality of life among older Canadians. Executive function, a key domain of cognitive function, plays an important role in maintaining functional independence and quality of life among aging adults.
As adults age, depression and executive dysfunction are linked through a strong bidirectional association. Depression increases the risk of reduced executive function (executive dysfunction). In turn, executive dysfunction increases the risk of depression as a response to the effects of executive dysfunction on daily life, evoking stress responses and further exacerbating symptoms of depression.
However, while many studies have investigated depression as a risk factor for executive dysfunction, much less attention has been given to executive dysfunction as a risk factor for depression. Moreover, even fewer studies have examined factors that could buffer the impact of executive dysfunction on depression. Social connection is a potential modifiable factor that could enhance resilience to stress and reduce the risk of depression among older adults with executive dysfunction.
The aim of this study is to investigate whether social connection (functional social support and social isolation) moderates the relationship between executive function at baseline and depressive symptoms over time, in middle-aged and older adults. Using data from 30,097 participants aged 45–85 years from the Comprehensive Cohort of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), analyses are being conducted across three time points: baseline, three-year, and six-year follow-ups.
This study will contribute to an emerging understanding of the association between executive dysfunction as a risk factor for depression, while providing insights into whether social connection has the potential to support mental health by reducing the risk of depression in individuals with executive dysfunction. These findings could help guide interventions that strengthen social connection to protect cognitive health among aging adults and encourage communities to develop healthy aging interventions that increase social support and reduce social isolation.
My time in the School of Public Health Sciences
During my graduate studies at the University of Waterloo, I’ve had many opportunities to engage with the university and the broader research community. I have served in several executive student roles at UWaterloo: Coordinator for the Graduate Studies Endowment Fund, Event Lead for the Symposium on Aging Research, and currently co-lead on the Peer Mentorship Committee for SPHS. While completing the Fundamentals of University Teaching at the Centre for Teaching Excellence, I was able to use the skills gained to guest lecture for an undergraduate public health class. The Grad Skill Enhancement Program provided me with valuable career preparation and collaborative leadership skills.
Also, as a research assistant on a Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) funded grant, I am contributing to a study investigating the experiences of personal support workers while performing patient handling, and barriers and facilitators to using equipment to help with patient lifts and transfers. Through this project, I am gaining valuable experience in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data to understand behaviour, attitudes, and motivations of participants.
A highlight of my training has been presenting my research at several conferences: Research and Practice in Health Sciences Conference, Symposium on Aging Research, Symposium on Neuroscience Research, Humans in the Loop: Human Factors Academic Day and Symposium.
I am grateful for the mentorship I have received from my supervisor, thesis committee members, staff, and colleagues.