BYU students Matthew Harris, Erica Bennion, and Kristine Magnusson, with BYU Public Health associate professor Dr. Evan Thacker, discovered an association between rural living and cognitive impairment and published their findings in the journal Neuroepidemiology.
As a Latin American Studies student at BYU, Matthew Harris knew he wanted to prepare for medical school by researching in a campus lab.
Harris’s innovative research about rural living and cognitive decline, which he conducted while he was a BYU student, was recently published in the Neuroepidemiology journal.
Harris's research began when he learned that there were geographic regional differences in the rate of Alzheimer's disease deaths across Puerto Rico possibly due to rural versus urban living. At the same time, he was researching molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease in a lab on campus under Dr. Jon Wisco, a BYU faculty member in the Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology (now Cell Biology). Harris decided he wanted to investigate the connection between cognitive decline and rural living, which was more in the realm of public health and epidemiology rather than cell biology.
Following Dr. Wisco's recommendation, Harris joined forces with Dr. Evan Thacker, a BYU Public Health epidemiology faculty member, and two BYU Public Health Students, Erica Bennion, and Kristine Magnusson, to study the connection. They used data from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS), a population-based study of stroke, brain health, and cognitive performance among 20,000 middle-aged and older adults living in rural or urban areas in the United States. Beginning with participants who were cognitively intact at the beginning of the study, the REGARDS study identified rural and urban participants who developed cognitive impairment and those who did not during an average of 9 years of follow-up.
With these data, Harris, Thacker, and their research team found an intriguing link between rural living and cognition. Harris explained, "What we found was that people living in rural areas had 24 percent higher odds of developing cognitive impairment than people living in urban areas. Even after adjusting for rural/urban differences in demographics, and social factors including education and income, health behaviors, and clinical characteristics. It was fascinating."
The next step for the team was examining the variables that could explain the observed difference. Their research found that certain health behaviors such as smoking habits, alcohol use patterns, and lack of exercise, had stronger associations with cognitive impairment in rural areas than in urban areas. These findings provide preliminary clues that can be followed up in future research about how to reduce the risk of cognitive decline in rural areas.
For Harris, having the opportunity to do this research was exciting because this project advanced our understanding of the reasons for cognitive impairment in rural areas in the United States. Harris said, "I find it incredibly rewarding that we discovered something at this level of detail and that we are able to contribute it to the general knowledge base to further patient outcomes for the better" Harris advised students interested in participating in research: "Focus on the small things and take things step by step." Taking things step by step allowed Harris and his team to learn how to contribute research that can make a difference, present their findings at the American Heart Association Epidemiology and Lifestyle Conference, and publish their study in Neuroepidemiology.
Harris is now a student at Jacobs School of Medicine at the University of Buffalo in New York, Bennion has completed her master's degree in epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and Magnusson has completed her master's degree in epidemiology at Emory University. According to Dr. Thacker, “These outstanding students started to prepare for their careers in epidemiology and medicine by engaging in mentored research at BYU. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to engage these BYU students in research that matters for improving rural public health.”
