Kenneth Chiou, Ph.D.Kenneth Chiou, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been awarded $1.5 million for a new five-year collaborative National Institutes of Health grant to advance research on how social factors such as social connectivity or social status impact lifespans.
People who are socially isolated or have low socioeconomic status suffer from poorer health and shorter lives, making social circumstances one of the strongest predictors of individual mortality.
Yet, the extent to which social factors contribute to longevity differences and how this variation is molecularly coded remains unclear. The NIH-funded project aims to discover why some live longer than others and how social factors contribute to differences in rates of molecular aging.
“Our project aims to help inform how we can modify certain social factors to improve health outcomes for aging people,” Chiou said. “I am grateful for the NIH grant as it will help us collect high-quality, information-rich social and life-history data that will lead us to fruitful results.”
Research reported in this brief is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG087902. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.