Rebeca Wong, PhD

Professor

Personal Statement:

Dr. Wong is a PhD population economist with 35 years of experience, with multi-disciplinary research that has been funded continuously by the NIA/NIH for the last 30 years. Her research includes a variety of topics related to the wellbeing of older adults, using a life course and multi-disciplinary perspective, with keen interest in health disparities in the populations of Mexico and US Hispanics. Dr. Wong serves as PI of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS, www.MHASweb.org), a 23-year longitudinal cohort study funded by NIA/NIH and the Mexican Statistical Bureau (INEGI), to examine the health and mortality of Mexican older adults with a wide socioeconomic perspective, including an emphasis on past migration to the United States. From the start, the study was designed to be highly comparable to the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

The MHAS includes an ancillary study for cognitive aging (Mex-Cog), which is part of the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP), applied to a sub-sample of the MHAS. This protocol has been harmonized and implemented in several countries, in coordination with the HRS, to study dementia and cognitive aging around the globe. Mex-Cog has completed two waves of data collection, with plans for a third in 2026.

Dr. Wong has served in several leadership positions, such as co-leader of P30 research infrastructure programs and cores, as PI of T32 training grants, and as Director of a World Health Organization/Panamerican Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) Collaborating Center on Aging and Health. She currently serves as co-mentor of three K-awards for faculty career development, and main advisor for a doctoral dissertation F31 award, all in the field of aging and health disparities and funded by NIA.