FOCUS
Julián’s research focuses on the social and biological determinants of cognitive aging in Mexico, leveraging longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) to understand why some older adults experience faster cognitive decline than others. He examines how socioeconomic factors, particularly education and wealth, contribute to differences in cognitive trajectories across birth cohorts, testing whether more recent cohorts show slower decline due to improved educational attainment. Julián then investigates how physical health, specifically multimorbidity, interacts with cohort membership to influence cognitive aging, asking whether the cognitive cost of chronic disease has grown larger in later-born cohorts. Finally, he integrates biomarkers of inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and cardiovascular risk to explore the biological pathways linking multimorbidity to cognitive decline. By combining social and biological approaches, Julián’s work aims to identify mechanisms and intervention targets to promote healthier cognitive aging in Mexico and similar global contexts.
MORE ABOUT JULIÁN
Julián is motivated by a deep interest in the factors that contribute to healthy cognitive aging in populations facing high burdens of chronic disease. He is also committed to studying overlooked low- and middle-income countries such as Mexico, where the proportion of aging adults is growing rapidly.
