Wei Xu, PhD

Dr. Wei Xu an assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Social Sciences in the Institute for Health and Equity. As a spatial epidemiologist, Dr. Xu’s work primarily focuses on the relationship between place-based factors, including physical, built, and social environments, and health and aging over the life course. By integrating social determinants of health and life course epidemiology frameworks, Dr. Xu's primary research projects leverage the linkage between residential histories of a WI population-representative cohort and long-term neighborhood conditions to examine the dynamic effects of neighborhood structural disadvantage over the life course on epigenetic aging and related inequalities. On age-related clinical outcomes, Dr. Xu investigates how health behaviors, particularly physical activity, and neighborhood environments may interact to influence one’s risk of incident dementias and subtypes. Recently, Dr. Xu's work has extended to examine the systemic inequities in access to long-term care resources and their consequences for the utilization, quality, and health outcomes among older adults in WI, including those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

• Spatial epidemiology
• Geographic information systems
• Health behaviors
• Neighborhood effects
• Epigenetics of aging
• Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
• Long-term care services