E: tcosco@sfu.ca
Office: Harbour Centre, Room 2800 Precision Mental Health Lab

Theodore D. Cosco

Associate Professor

Theodore D Cosco, PhD is an Associate Professor of Mental Health & Aging at the Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University and Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford.

Dr. Cosco is a Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society) trained in applied social research methods (MSc 2011, Trinity College Dublin), and epidemiology (PhD 2015, University of Cambridge). For his contributions to pedagogy, he has been elected to Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and for contributions to psychology Associate Fellowship of the British Psychological Society. Recently, he received the Early Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association and European Health Psychology Society, the Young Investigator Colloquium Scholarship from the American Psychosomatic Society, as well as becoming the youngest recipient of the Canadian Association on Gerontology’s Recognition Award for Excellence in Longitudinal Research in Honour of Betty Havens.

At age 12 Dr. Cosco began volunteering at a long-term care facility, beginning what would become a life-long passion for gerontology and the aging process. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, Dr. Cosco examines a range of factors that promote healthy aging and resilience in older adults, from digital interventions to physical activity.

Education

2015: PhD (Public Health and Primary Care), University of Cambridge
2011: MSc (Applied Social Research), Trinity College Dublin
2009: BSc (Psychology), University of Alberta

Research

Healthy aging: functional trajectory modelling, resilience in adversity, positive psychology, social support, social isolation, loneliness, lifestyle behaviors (e.g. physical activity); Mental health: wellbeing, quality of life, depression, anxiety; Life course epidemiology: longitudinal analysis, latent variable modelling, population-level health; Research methods: qualitative and quantitative analysis, statistics, data collection, survey methods; eHealth: health and technology, mobile health, technology-driven data collection methods, the internet of things

Current/Selected Grants

Contract/Grant: Connection Grant, Matched Funding Awarded: 2022 Period: 2022 - 2023

Project Title: Mental health needs and technological interventions for social connectedness amongst older adults: Development of a multi-media knowledge mobilization ecosystem
Funding: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Type: Research Grant Total: $50,000
Involvement: Principal Investigator

Contract/Grant: National Targeted CIHR Awarded: 2021 Period: 2021 - 2027

Project Title: Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Follow-up 3 and Follow-up 4
Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Type: Research Grant Total: $52,000,000
Involvement: Co-Investigator

Contract/Grant: Scholar Award Awarded: 2020 Period: 2020 - 2025

Project Title: Mental health in later life: A stakeholder informed approach to health and technology
Funding: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Type: Award Total: $450,000
Involvement: Principal Investigator

Contract/Grant: Partnership Grant Awarded: 2020 Period: 2020 - 2025

Project Title: Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-Making (CAnD3): Developing talent for population analytics in aging societies
Funding: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Type: Partnership Grant Total: $2,499,996 Involvement: Co-Investigator

Contract/Grant: Core Research Project Awarded: 2020 Period: 2020 - 2023

Project Title: Precision mental health: A stakeholder informed, Big Data approach to psychological wellbeing
Funding: AGE-WELL Network Centres of Excellence Type: Project Grant Total: $474,000
Involvement: Principal Investigator

Publications

Book Chapters

Rowe, J. W., Cosco, T. D. (2016) Successful aging. In V. Bengsten & R. Stettersten (Eds.) Handbook of Theories of Aging. (pp. 539-550). Springer Publishing Company

Journal Articles

Peters, S., Cosco, T., Mackey, D., Sarohia, G., Leong, J., & Wister, A. (2022). Do current measurement instruments of physical resilience in aging tell the whole story? A scoping review. Physiotherapy Canada. https://doi.org/10.3138/ptc-2020-0134.
Teo, K., Churchill, R., Riadi, I., Kervin. L., Wister, A., & Cosco, T. (2022). Help-seeking behaviors among older adults: A scoping review. Journal of Applied Gerontology. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648211067710.
Wister, A., Li, L., Cosco, T., McMillan, J., Griffith, L., & on behalf of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Team. (2022). Multimorbidity resilience and COVID-19 pandemic self-reported impact and worry among older adults: A study based on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). BMC Geriatrics. 22:92. https//doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-02769-2.
Wister, A., O’Dea, E., Fyffe, I., & Cosco, T. (2022). Technological interventions to reduce loneliness and social isolation among community-living older adults: A scoping review. Gerontechnology. 20(2):1-16. https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2021.20.2.30-471.11.
Cosco, T. D., Pillinger, T., Emam, H., Solmi, M., Budhdeo, S., Prina, A. M., ... & Carvalho, A. F. (2018). Immune Aberrations in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Molecular neurobiology, 1-9.
Torous, J., Firth, J., Huckvale, K., Larsen, M. E., Cosco, T. D., Carney, R., ... & Keshavan, M. (2018). The emerging imperative for a consensus approach toward the rating and clinical recommendation of mental health apps. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 206(8), 662-666.
Torous, J., Larsen, M. E., Depp, C., Cosco, T. D., Barnett, I., Nock, M. K., & Firth, J. (2018). Smartphones, sensors, and machine learning to advance real-time prediction and interventions for suicide prevention: a review of current progress and next steps. Current psychiatry reports, 20(7), 51.
Cosco, T. D., Howse, K., & Brayne, C. (2017). Healthy ageing, resilience and wellbeing. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 26(6), 579-583.
Cosco, T. D., Prina, M., Stubbs, B., & Wu, Y. T. (2017). Reliability and Validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in a Population-Based Cohort of Middle-Aged US Adults. Journal of nursing measurement, 25(3), 476-485.
Elhakeem, A., Hardy, R., Bann, D., Caleyachetty, R., Cosco, T. D., Hayhoe, R. P., ... & Cooper, R. (2017). Intergenerational social mobility and leisure-time physical activity in adulthood: a systematic review. J Epidemiol Community Health, 71(7), 673-680.
Soysal, P., Stubbs, B., Lucato, P., Luchini, C., Solmi, M., Peluso, R., ... & Maggio, M. (2017). Corrigendum to" Inflammation and frailty in the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis"[Ageing Res Rev. 31 (2016) 1-8]. Ageing research reviews, 35, 364.
Soysal, P., Veronese, N., Thompson, T., Kahl, K. G., Fernandes, B. S., Prina, A. M., ... & Lin, P. Y. (2017). Relationship between depression and frailty in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ageing research reviews, 36, 78-87.
Stubbs, B., Vancampfort, D., Rosenbaum, S., Firth, J., Cosco, T., Veronese, N., ... & Schuch, F. B. (2017). An examination of the anxiolytic effects of exercise for people with anxiety and stress-related disorders: a meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 249, 102-108.
Veronese, N., Facchini, S., Stubbs, B., Luchini, C., Solmi, M., Manzato, E., ... & Fontana, L. (2017). Weight loss is associated with improvements in cognitive function among overweight and obese people: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 72, 87-94.
Cosco, T. D., & Kuh, D. (2016). The healthy and successful aging of our discipline. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 64(2), 455-456.
Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., Muniz, G., Brayne, C., & CC75C Study Collaboration. (2016). A novel examination of successful aging trajectories at the end of life. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 35(4), 533-540.
Stubbs, B., Koyanagi, A., Thompson, T., Veronese, N., Carvalho, A. F., Solomi, M., ... & Vancampfort, D. (2016). The epidemiology of back pain and its relationship with depression, psychosis, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and stress sensitivity: Data from 43 low-and middle-income countries. General hospital psychiatry, 43, 63-70.
Stubbs, B., Wu, Y. T., Prina, A. M., Leng, Y., & Cosco, T. D. (2016). A population study of the association between sleep disturbance and suicidal behaviour in people with mental illness. Journal of psychiatric research, 82, 149-154.
Soysal, P., Stubbs, B., Lucato, P., Luchini, C., Solmi, M., Peluso, R., ... & Maggio, M. (2016). Inflammation and frailty in the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ageing research reviews, 31, 1-8.
Cosco, T. D. (2015). Medical journals, impact and social media: an ecological study of the Twittersphere. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(18), 1353-1357.
Cosco, T. D. (2015). Successfully aging predicts successful aging in successful agers: further definitional issues. International psychogeriatrics, 27(1), 170-171.
Cosco, T. D., Armstrong, J. J., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2015). Successful aging and frailty: mutually exclusive paradigms or two ends of a shared continuum?. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 18(1), 35.
Cosco, T. D., Brehme, D., Grigoruta, N., Kaufmann, L. K., Lemsalu, L., Meex, R., ... & Brayne, C. (2015). Cross-cultural perspectives of successful aging: young Turks and Europeans. Educational Gerontology, 41(11), 800-813.
Cosco, T. D., Kaushal, A., Cooper, R., Richards, M., Hardy, R., Kuh, D., & Stafford, M. (2015). The operationalisation of resilience in ageing: a systematic review. The Lancet, 386, S32.
Cosco, T. D., & King, J. H. (2015). Americans shooting themselves in the foot: the epidemiology of podiatric self‐inflicted gunshot wounds in the United States. Medical journal of Australia, 203(11), 458-461.
Cosco, T. D., Lemsalu, L., Brehme, D. F., Grigoruta, N., Kaufmann, L. K., Meex, R., ... & Brayne, C. (2015). Younger Europeans’ conceptualizations of successful aging. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 63(3), 609-611.
Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2015). Validation of an a priori, index model of successful aging in a population-based cohort study: The successful aging index. International psychogeriatrics, 27(12), 1971-1977.
Martin, S., Kelly, S., Khan, A., Cullum, S., Dening, T., Rait, G., ... & Lafortune, L. (2015). Attitudes and preferences towards screening for dementia: a systematic review of the literature. BMC geriatrics, 15(1), 66.
Prina, A. M., Cosco, T. D., Dening, T., Beekman, A., Brayne, C., & Huisman, M. (2015). The association between depressive symptoms in the community, non-psychiatric hospital admission and hospital outcomes: A systematic review. Journal of psychosomatic research, 78(1), 25-33.
Cosco, T. D., Brayne, C., & Stephan, B. C. (2014). Psychosocial models: Focus on positive features of ageing. Nature, 514(7520), 35.
Cosco, T. D., Matthew Prina, A., Perales, J., Stephan, B., & Brayne, C. (2014). Whose" successful ageing"?: lay-and researcher-driven conceptualisations of ageing well. The European Journal of Psychiatry, 28(2), 124-130.
Cosco, T. D., Muniz, G., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2014). Successful ageing, education, and functional trajectories in later life: a longitudinal latent variable modelling analysis. The Lancet, 384, S9.
Cosco, T. D., Prina, A. M., Perales, J., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2014). Operational definitions of successful aging: a systematic review. International Psychogeriatrics, 26(3), 373-381.
Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2014). (Unsuccessful) Binary Modeling of Successful Aging in the Oldest‐Old Adults: A Call for Continuum‐Based Measures. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(8), 1597-1598.
Gefen, T., Shaw, E., Whitney, K., Martersteck, A., Stratton, J., Rademaker, A., ... & Rogalski, E. (2014). Longitudinal neuropsychological performance of cognitive SuperAgers. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(8), 1598-1600.
Perales, J., Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., Fleming, J., Martin, S., Haro, J. M., & Brayne, C. (2014). Health-related quality of life in the Cambridge City over-75s Cohort (CC75C): development of a dementia-specific scale and descriptive analyses. BMC geriatrics, 14(1), 18.
Cosco, T. D., Prina, A. M., Perales, J., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2013). Lay perspectives of successful ageing: a systematic review and meta-ethnography. BMJ open, 3(6), e002710.
Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2013). On the success of the successful aging paradigm.
Cosco, T. D., Stephan, B. C., & Brayne, C. (2013). Deathless models of aging and the importance of acknowledging the dying process. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 185(9), 751-752.
Norton, S., Cosco, T., Doyle, F., Done, J., & Sacker, A. (2013). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale: a meta confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of psychosomatic research, 74(1), 74-81.
Cosco, T. D., Doyle, F., Ward, M., & McGee, H. (2012). Latent structure of the Hospital Anxiety And Depression Scale: a 10-year systematic review. Journal of psychosomatic research, 72(3), 180-184.
Cosco, T. D., Doyle, F., Watson, R., Ward, M., & McGee, H. (2012). Mokken scaling analysis of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in individuals with cardiovascular disease. General Hospital Psychiatry, 34(2), 167-172.
Doyle, F., Cosco, T. D., & Conroy, R. (2012). Why the HADS is still important: reply to Coyne & van Sonderen.
Jackson, Y., Kelland, J., Cosco, T. D., McNeil, D. C., & Reddon, J. R. (2009). Nonvocational outcomes of vocational rehabilitation: reduction in health services utilization. Work, 33(4), 381-387.
Cosco, T., Knopp, A., & Milke, D. (2007). Investigative first steps: Appropriate identification and ethical review of research and quality improvement. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI), 11(3).

Awards and honours

Awards

Early Career Award – European Health Psychology Society (2018)
Recognition Award for Excellence in Longitudinal Research – Canadian Association on Gerontology (2017)
Early Career Achievement Award – American Psychological Association (2017)
CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship – Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2016)
Alzheimer’s Research UK Cambridge Network Scholarship (2014)
Travel Award – MDPI Geriatrics (2019)
Sentinel of Science Award: Top 1% of Reviewers – Publons (2018)
“What is your challenge?” Overall Business Pitch Winner – CIHR Institute of Aging Summer Program on Ageing (2018)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award x 2 (2018)
Three Minute Pitch 1st Place – SFU Postdoctoral Students’ Association (2018)
Postdoctoral Poster Award – Canadian Institute of Health Research (2017)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Winnipeg, Canada (2017)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2017)
Young Investigator Colloquium Scholar – American Psychosomatic Society (2017)
Sentinel of Science Award: Top 10% of Medicine Peer Reviewers – Publons (2016)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2016)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Montreal, Canada (2016)
Postdoctoral Poster Award – Canadian Association on Gerontology (2015)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Calgary, Canada (2015)
British Society on Gerontology Bursary (2015)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Niagara Falls, Canada (2014)
Guarantors of Brain Travel Award (2014)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2014)
Cambridge School of Public Health Research Travel Grant (2014)
Cambridge Philosophical Society Travel Grant (2014)

Early Career Award – European Health Psychology Society (2018)
Recognition Award for Excellence in Longitudinal Research – Canadian Association on Gerontology (2017)
Early Career Achievement Award – American Psychological Association (2017)
CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship – Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2016)
Alzheimer’s Research UK Cambridge Network Scholarship (2014)
Travel Award – MDPI Geriatrics (2019)
Sentinel of Science Award: Top 1% of Reviewers – Publons (2018)
“What is your challenge?” Overall Business Pitch Winner – CIHR Institute of Aging Summer Program on Ageing (2018)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award x 2 (2018)
Three Minute Pitch 1st Place – SFU Postdoctoral Students’ Association (2018)
Postdoctoral Poster Award – Canadian Institute of Health Research (2017)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Winnipeg, Canada (2017)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2017)
Young Investigator Colloquium Scholar – American Psychosomatic Society (2017)
Sentinel of Science Award: Top 10% of Medicine Peer Reviewers – Publons (2016)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2016)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Montreal, Canada (2016)
Postdoctoral Poster Award – Canadian Association on Gerontology (2015)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Calgary, Canada (2015)
British Society on Gerontology Bursary (2015)
Canadian Association on Gerontology Travel Award – Niagara Falls, Canada (2014)
Guarantors of Brain Travel Award (2014)
Canadian Institute of Health Research – Community Support Award (2014)
Cambridge School of Public Health Research Travel Grant (2014)
Cambridge Philosophical Society Travel Grant (2014)

Gerontology