Jingkai Wei, PhD, MSPH
- Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School
- Adjunct Assistant Professor, UTHealth School of Public Health
Contact
Biography
Dr. Wei is a tenure-track assistant professor and epidemiologist in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Prior to joining UTHealth Houston, he was a tenure-track assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina. His area of interest is the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease and cognitive aging in populations, with a focus on lifestyle, psychosocial, and vascular risk factors.
Education
- Postdoctoral training
- George Washington University
- PhD Epidemiology
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- MSPH Epidemiology
- Emory University
- MBBS Preventive Medicine
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Selected Publications
- Zhang Y, Yaseri AF, Kulshreshtha A, Crump C, Wei J. Trends in Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia among Midlife Adults in the United States: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2018. Prev Med. 2025 Feb:191:108208. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.108208. Epub 2024 Dec 14.
- Wei J, Lohman MC, Brown MJ, Hardin JW, Xu H, Yang CH, Merchant AT, Miller MC, Friedman DB. Physical Activity Initiated from Midlife on Risk of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment: The Health and Retirement Study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 Dec;72(12):3668-3680.
- Wei J, Xu H, Tang H, Zhang D, Wang T, Steck SE, Divers J, Zhang J, Merchant AT. Initiation of Antihypertensive Medication from Midlife on Incident Dementia: The Health and Retirement Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023;94(4):1431-1441.
- Wei J, Xu H, Liese AD, Merchant AT, Wang L, Yang CH, Lohman MC, Brown MJ, Wang T, Friedman DB. Ten-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011 to 2014. J Am Heart Assoc. 2023 Jun 6;12(11):e028527.
- Wei J, Wang L, Kulshreshtha A, Xu H. Adherence to Life’s Simple 7 and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011 to 2014. J Am Heart Assoc. 2022 Mar 4:e022959.
- Wei J, Gianattasio KZ, Bennett EE, Xu X, Park ES, Smith RL, Stewart J, Ying Q, Whitsel EA, Power MC. The Associations of Dietary Copper with Cognitive Outcomes: The ARIC Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2022 Mar 3:kwac040.
- Wei J, Palta P, Meyer ML, Kucharska-Newton A, Pence BW, Aiello AE, Power MC, Walker K, Sharrett AR, Tanaka H, Jack C, Reid R, Reyes D, Mosley T, Heiss G. Aortic Stiffness and Cerebral White Matter Microstructural Integrity Assessed by Diffusion Tensor Imaging: The ARIC-NCS. J Am Heart Assoc. 2020 Mar 17;9(6):e014868.
- Wei J, Galaviz KI, Kowalski AJ, Magee MJ, Haw JS, Narayan KMV, Ali MK. Comparison of Cardiovascular Events Among Users of Different Classes of Antihypertension Drugs: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(2):e1921618.
- Wei J, Hou R, Zhang X, Xu H, Xie L, Chandrasekar EK, Ying M, Goodman M. The associations of late-life depression with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality among community-dwelling older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 2019 Aug;215(2):449-455.
- Wei J, Anjana RM, Goenka S, Lobelo F, Shivashankar R, Kadir M, Tandon N, Mohan V, Narayan V, Prabhakaran D, Ali MK. Physical activity, sitting, and risk factors of cardiovascular disease: a cross-sectional analysis of the CARRS study. J Behav Med. 2019 Jun;42(3):502-510.
Current Research Studies and Projects
Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant
Emulating early physical activity and multidomain interventions on ADRD
The goal of this project is to estimate the effectiveness of initiating physical activity and multidomain interventions from midlife in reducing cognitive impairment with the approach of target trial emulation using observational data. The results will promote and optimize early prevention of cognitive outcomes through improving lifestyle factors and managing vascular risk factors in populations.