What We Do
At the Lifelong Health & Wellbeing Lab at Simon Fraser University, we investigate how psychosocial factors shape health and wellbeing across the adult lifespan. To do so, we use an interdisciplinary approach focusing on bio-behavioural pathways linking social relationships to health, including health behaviours (e.g., physical activity) and health biomarkers (e.g., levels of the stress hormone cortisol).
Our methods include the analysis of longer-term health and wellbeing trajectories based on data collected over many years as well as investigating daily life dynamics based on experiential data collected over a period of days/weeks.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT ON OLDER ADULTS
We explore individual and community barriers and facilitators that affect older adults' ability to cope with extreme heat events.
HEALTH-RELEVANT EVERYDAY SOCIAL CONTEXTS IN OLD AGE
We document health-relevant correlates of positive and negative social contexts in older adults including social isolation, solitude, and loneliness.
Psychosocial contexts of stress physiology
We establish novel links between older adults’ stress physiology (e.g., as measured by salivary cortisol levels) and daily psychosocial experiences.
Long-term social and health transitions
We use long-term longitudinal data, for example as collected by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, to examine determinants of social and health changes in mid- to late-life.
Wearables to assess health-relevant parameters
We use portable devices and wearables to collect data on older adults’ psychological states, behaviour, physiological responses, and environmental context in real-time, as they go about their daily lives.