Faculty Profile

Lindsay C Kobayashi, PhD, MSc

Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Faculty Affiliate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Associate Professor of Global Public Health
Co-Director, Certificate in Social Epidemiology

Dr. Kobayashi's research focuses on the social epidemiology of cognitive aging from a global perspective. She investigates social and economic life course influences on cognitive aging, primarily using data from internationally harmonized longitudinal studies of aging, including older populations of the United States, England, India, China, Mexico, and South Africa. At the University of Michigan, she is a member of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health (CSEPH), the Rogel Cancer Center, and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. In recognition of her contributions to the social epidemiology of cognitive aging in rural South Africa, she is an Honorary Senior Researcher at the MRC/Wits Rural Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt) at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

PhD, University College London, London, UK, 2016
MSc, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, 2012
BSc, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, 2010

Research Interests:
Aging; global health; epidemiology; social epidemiology; cognitive aging; health disparities

Research Projects:
Dr. Kobayashi is co-leading an NIA-funded R01 (R01AG069128) with Dr. Molly Rosenberg at Indiana University, which aims to to determine how cumulative, randomized, and quasi-randomized socioeconomic exposures in mid-to-later- life affect memory decline and dementia risk in later-life, by linking three unique population data sources in South Africa that cover a 22-year period from 2000 to 2021.

Dr. Kobayashi is co-leading an NIA-funded R01 (R01AG070953) with Dr. Alden Gross at Johns Hopkins University, which aims to estimate the contributions of key socioeconomic and cardiovascular dementia risk factors to later-life cognitive function between individuals and between countries in the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and its International Partner Studies (IPS) in South Africa, Mexico, India, and England.

Dr. Kobayashi is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Training on Health and Aging T32 program in the Department of Epidemiology, with Dr. Sung Kyun Park.

Kobayashi LC, Morris EP, Harling G, Farrell MT, Kabeto MU, Wagner RG, Berkman LF. Subjective social position and cognitive function in a longitudinal cohort of older, rural South African adults, 2014-2019. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2022;76(4):385-90. doi: 10.1136/jech-2021-217059.

Yu X, Langa KM, Cho TC, Kobayashi LC. Association of perceived job insecurity with subsequent memory function and decline among adults 55 years or older in England and the US, 2006 to 2016. JAMA Netw Open 2022;5(4):e227060. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7060

Banack HR, Lesko CR, Whitcomb BW, Kobayashi LC. Teaching epidemiology online: pandemic edition. Am J Epidemiol 2021;190(7):1183-9. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwaa285

Kobayashi LC, Gross AL, Gibbons LE, Tommet D, Sanders E, Choi S, Mukherjee S, Glymour MM, Dufouil C, Manly JJ, Berkman LF, Crane PK, Mungas DM, Jones RN. You say tomato, I say radish: can brief cognitive assessments in the US Health and Retirement Study be harmonized with its International Partner Studies? J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021;76(9):1767-76. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa205

Kobayashi LC, Farrell MT, Langa KM, Mahlalela N, Wagner RG, Berkman LF. Incidence of cognitive impairment during aging in rural South Africa: evidence from HAALSI, 2014 to 2019. Neuroepidemiol 2021;55(2):100-8. doi:10.559/000513276.

Ospina-Romero M, Glymour MM, Hayes-Larson E, Mayeda ER, Graff RE, Brenowitz WD, Ackley SF, Witte J, Kobayashi LC. Association between cancer and Alzheimer's disease with evaluation of study biases: systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Network Open 2020;3(11):e2025515. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.25515

View full list of publications at [PubMed]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=lindsay+kobayashi

Email: lkob@umich.edu

Office: 734-763-0322

For media inquiries: sph.media@umich.edu

Areas of Expertise: Aging, Brain Disorders, Cancer, Chronic Disease, Global Public Health, Health Equity, Social Epidemiology