Jessica Finlay, University of Colorado Boulder, Assistant Professor, Geography
Title: Advancing Cognability: A Mixed-methods Approach to Neighborhoods and Cognitive Health
Abstract: Built, social, and natural environments critically structure brain health and dementia risk. This talk introduces cognability, a life course framework to understand how neighborhood environments support — or constrain — cognitive health through social and behavioral pathways. The concept was initially developed through a mixed-methods investigation combining rich interview data with national quantitative data. Analyses demonstrated that access to civic and social organizations, recreation centers, eateries, arts centers, museums, and transportation infrastructure was significantly associated with cognitive function. Building on this foundation, subsequent mixed-methods studies extend cognability to examine contexts of cognitive health during disruption and crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic and environmental hazards such as wildfires. Our team is also investigating distinct patterns of neighborhood engagement across adulthood. As the global dementia burden grows, cognability offers an integrative socio-ecological model of cognitive health to help guide upstream place-based interventions and inform policy efforts aimed at creating more equitable communities that support cognitive health across the life course.
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