Åke Wahlin
Licensed psychologist
Professor in cognitive developmental psychology
Head, Department of Psychology
Contents
Professional History
Collaborative Research and Main Partners
Doctoral Students
Conference Presentations
Publications in the Past 5 Years
Book Chapters
Review Comissions
Seminars and Meetings
Selected Important Persons
Short presentation
My research represents a crossover between family medicine and cognitive psychology. In the context of cognitive aging, I focus on what it means that participants in research are rarely free of disease. To what extent does ill health account for age differences in cognitive functioning? How about sex differences in cognitive functioning? Does health/ill health affect cognitive abilities similarly in men and women? And so on.
This interest started during the time of my clinical period, when I worked as neuropsychologist and mainly focused on dementia diagnostic work. It gradually became apparent to me that the word ”normal” (as opposed to pathological) was problematic. Beyond the devastating impact of brain disease, what else mattered? Could one really trust the norm- or reference data to which a patient was to be compared? Indeed, the absence of a comprehensive view about cognition-associated diseases may result in failures to take into consideration health conditions that are critical to cognitive functioning, sometimes selectively, and this may be particularly true in the study of old age.
I have been fortunate enough to work with a number of population based projects, the Kungsholmen Project, Victoria Longitudinal Study, and the Betula Project. My main collaborators are listed below.
In recent years I have had the possibility to become a principal investigator of a population based project myself. My main collaborators are also listed below. The project is called Poverty and Health in Ageing in Bangladesh, and during 2003 the first wave of data were collected from 600 elderly persons living in Matlab South East of Dhaka. Recently, we have started reporting cognitive, medical, social, lifestyle and quality of life data from this exciting project. A main task will be to perform cross cultural comparisons. This is not limited to Sweden-Bangladesh comparisons, but will also include other relevant comparisons, e.g., within Asia. A main tool for this is the INOPA (International Network of Public Health and Ageing) network, of which I am the coordinator, that includes population-based studies in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Finland, India, Netherlands, Sweden, and VietNam.
Professional history
Education
| MSc in Psychology, Stockholm University | 1990 |
| Doctoral student at the Karolinska Institute | 1992-1996 |
| State registered psychologist | 1993 |
| Doctor in medical science (PhD) | 1996 |
| Associate professor | 2004 |
| Professor | 2007 |
Professional positions
| Neuropsychologist at the Institute of Gerontology, Huddinge Hospital | 1992-1993 |
| Research assistant at Stockholm Gerontology Research Center | 1990-1996 |
| Researcher at Stockholm Gerontology Research Center | 1996- |
| Assistant director of the psychology sector at Stockholm Gerontology Research Center | 1997-2002 |
| Researcher at Department of Psychology, Stockholm University | 2003- |
| Head of Department of Psychology, Stockholm University | 2007- |
Collaborative research and main partners
Doing population based research would be impossible without collaborators. Below, my main partners are listed in no particular order:
Lars-Göran Nilsson, Psykologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet, Sverige. Roger A. Dixon, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Project: Health and cognitive functioning.
Grants: STINT, HSFR
Laura Fratiglioni, Lars Bäckman, ARC/Karolinska institutet, Sverige.
Project: Health and cognitive functioning in very old age.
Grants: FAS
Tom Brismar, Karolinska hospital, Clinical Neurophysiology Section.
Project: Quantitative EEG, diabetes mellitus and cognitive functioning.
Grants: Diabets Foundation, Sweden.
Kim Streatfield, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Zarina N Kabir, ARC/Karolinska institutet, Sverige.
Project: Poverty and Health in Ageing in Bangladesh.
Grants: Department for International Development (DfID) UK, Swedish Medical Research Council, Swedish International Development Agency.
Dr Zarina Nahar Kabir, coordinator of Primary Health Care in Later Life: Improving service in Vietnam and Bangladesh (PHILL), financed by EU, co-PI for “Poverty and Health in Ageing”; Dr Peter Kim Streatfield, head of Health and Demographic Surveillance Program, Public Health Sciences Division, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh, co-PI for “Poverty and Health in Ageing”; Dr Syed Masud Ahmed, BRAC Research and Evaluation Division, Dhaka, Bangladesh, PHILL-BD; Dr Tran Thi Mai, Community Health Dept, Health Strategy and Policy Institute, Ministry of Health, Vietnam; Dr Stuart MacDonald, Karolinska Institutet/University of Alberta, Canada; Dr Miia Kivipelto, Karolinska Institutet, PI for “Cardiovascular risk factors, Aging, and Dementia (CAIDE), Finland; Associate professor Martin vanBoxtel, scientific coordinator for the Maastricht Ageing Study (MAAS), University of Maastricht, Holland; Professor Lars-Göran Nilsson, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, project leader of the Betula-project in Umeå; Professor Kaarin Anstey, Director, Ageing Research Unit, Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australien, co-PI for Canberra Longitudinal Study (CLS) and The PATH Through Life Project; Assistant professor Shaji Kunnukattil, regional coordinator for India & South Asia 10/66 Dementia Research Group, Kerala Indien.
Project: INOPA - International Network on Public Health and Aging.
Grants: FAS.
Doctoral students
To have good doctoral students is crucial to any senior researcher. In that respect, I have been lucky:
Main supervisor to:
Dr Erik Nilsson (defended his PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2006-06-08)
Diabetes and cognitive functioning: The role of age and comorbidity.
Dr Tamanna Ferdous (defended her Licentiate at Karolinska Institutet 2007-01-31)
Prevalence of malnutrition and determinants of nutritional status among elderly people: A population-based study in rural Bangladesh.
Dr Ola Sternäng (defended his PhD at Stockholm university 2011-01-14)
Individual differences in the aging memory: Mediation accounts, moderators, and contextual factors.
Masuma A Khanam (registered PhD student at Karolinska Institutet 2004-07-05)
Ninni Persson (registered PhD student at Stockholm University 2009-12-15)
Co-supervisor to:
Dr Kjell Fahlander (defended his PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2002-06-14)
Cognitive functioning in aging and dementia: The role of psychiatric and somatic factors.
Dr Eija Airaksinen (defended her PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2006-12-01)
Cognitive functions in depression and anxiety disorders: Findings from a population-based study.
Dr Masud AKM Rana (defended his PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2009-04-24)
The impact of health promotion on health in old age: Results from community-based studies in rural Bangladesh.
Dr Åsa Livner (defended her PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2009-05-29)
Prospective and retrospective memory in normal and pathological aging.
Dr Tamanna Ferdous (defended her PhD at Uppsala University 2009-09-22)
Determinants and functional impact of nutritional status among older persons in rural Bangladesh.
Dr Gunilla Östlund (defended her PhD at Karolinska Institutet 2010-11-12)
Aspects of fatigue in post-polio.
Mattias Sundgren (registered PhD student at Karolinska Institutet 2009-12-15)
Conference presentations
I have done more than 80 oral conference presentations, some of which I consider more important.
Wahlin, Å. (1995, September). Episodic memory performance and the ability to utilize cognitive support in very old age: The influence of individual difference variables. Invited symposium at the III European Congress of Gerontology, Amsterdam, Holland.
Wahlin, Å. (1999, August). Aging and variability of cognitive functioning: The impact of health. Invited symposium (Convener: Agneta Herlitz) at the 6th Nordic Meeting in Neuropsychology, Sønderborg, Denmark.
Wahlin, Å. (2004, August). Sex differences in cognitive functioning: Health moderators and mediators. Invited symposium (The Betula Project, a prospective study of ageing, memory and dementia. Convener: Lars-Göran Nilsson) at the 8th Nordic Meeting in Neuropsychology, Turku, Finland.
Wahlin, Å. (2004, August). Health and cognitive functioning in old age. Convener: Åke Wahlin. Invited co-speakers: Robert D. Hill (University of Utah); David Bunce (University of London); Martin P. J. van Boxtel (Maastricht University); Kaarin Anstey (Australian National University). XXVIII International Congress of Psychology, Beijing, China.
Wahlin, Å. (2005, November). Why assessment of cognitive functioning is an important aspect of public health. Invited symposium (Double burden of disease in old age in low-income countries: Communicable and non-communicable diseases. Convener: Bengt Winblad) at the International Conference on Mainstreaming Ageing in Health Systems and Rural Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Wahlin, Å. (2007, July). Synergy effects on memory involving ApoE status and vascular health variations: The Betula Project. Invited symposium (The Betula Study on Cognitive Aging. Convener: Lars-Göran Nilsson) at the Xth European Congress of Psychology, Prague, Czech Republic.
Publications in the past 5 years
Wahlin, Å., MacDonald, S. W. S., deFrias, C. M., Nilsson, L.- G., & Dixon, R. A. (2006). How health and biological age influence chronological age and sex differences in cognitive aging: Moderating, mediating, or both? Psychology and Aging, 21, 318-332.
Kabir, Z. N., Ferdous, T., Cederholm, T., Khanam, M. A., Streatfield, K., & Wahlin, Å. (2006). Mini Nutritional Assessment of rural elderly people in Bangladesh: The impact of demographic, socio-economic and health factors. Public Health Nutrition, 9, 968-974.
Airaksinen, E., Wahlin, Å., Larsson, M., & Forsell, Y. (2006). Cognitive and social functioning in recovery from depression: Results from a population-based three-year follow-up. Journal of Affective Disorders, 96, 107-110.
Airaksinen, E., Wahlin, Å., Forsell, Y., & Larsson, M. (2007). Episodic memory dysfunction as a premorbid marker of depression: Evidence from a three-year follow-up. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 115, 458-465.
de Frias, C. M., Bunce, D., Wahlin, Å., Adolfsson, R., Sleegers, K., Cruts, M., Van Broekhoven, C., & Nilsson, L.- G. (2007). Cholesterol and triglycerides moderate the effect of APOE on memory functioning in older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 62, P112-P118.
Rana, A. K. M. M., Stålsby Lundborg, C., Wahlin, Å., Ahmed, S. M., & Kabir, Z. N. (2007). The impact of health education in managing self-reported arthritis-related illness. Health Education Research, online Feb 14.
Wahlin, Å., Fahlander, K., Robins Wahlin, T.- B., Bunce, D., & Bäckman, L. (2008). Vitamin B status and cognitive performance in preclinical and clinical Alzheimer's disease: Data from the Kungsholmen Project. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 25, 23-31.
Sternäng, O., Wahlin, Å., & Nilsson, L.- G. (2008). Examination of the processing speed account in a population-based longitudinal study with narrow age cohort design. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 419-428.
Wahlin, Å., Anstey, K. J., Mc Donald, S. W. S., Ahmed, S. M., Kivipelto, M., Kuunnukattil, S. S., Mai, T. T., Nilsson, L.- G., Streatfield, P. K., van Boxtel, M. P. J., & Kabir, Z. N. (2008). The international network on public health and ageing (INOPA): Introducing a life course perspective to the public health agenda. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 23, 97-105.
Östlund, G., Wahlin, Å., Sunnhagen, K. S., & Borg, K. (2008). Vitality among Swedish post-polio patients: A physiological phenomenon. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 40, 709-714.
Nilsson, E., & Wahlin, Å. (2009). Diabetes and elevated glycosylated hemoglobin: Episodic memory and utilization of cognitive support. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 388-405.
Rana, A. K. M. M., Wahlin, Å., Streatfield, P. K., & Kabir, Z. N. (2009). The association of bone and joint diseases with health-related quality of life among elderly people: A population-based cross-sectional study in rural Bangladesh. Ageing & Society, 29, 727-743.
Rana, A. K. M. M., Wahlin, Å., Stålsby Lundborg, C., & Kabir, Z. N. (2009). Impact of health eduction on health-related quality of life among elderly persons: Results from a community-based intervention study in rural Bangladesh. Health Promotion International, 24, 36-45.
Ferdous, T., Kabir, Z. N., Streatfield, P. K., Wahlin, Å., & Cederholm, T. (2009). The multidimensional background of malnutrition among rural older individuals in Bangladesh - A challenge for the Millennium Development Goal. Public Health Nutrition, 12, 2270-2278.
Ferdous, T. Cederholm, T., Razzaque, A., Wahlin, Å., & Kabir, Z. N. (2009). Nutritional status and performance-based evaluation of functional ability of elderly persons in rural Bangladesh. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 37, 518-524.
Sternäng, O., Wahlin, Å., Adolfsson, R., Sleegers, K., Van Broekhoven, C., & Nilsson, L.- G. (2009). APOE and lipid level synergy effects on declarative memory functioning in adulthood. European Psychologist, 14, 268-278.
Livner, Å., Wahlin, Å., & Bäckman, L. (2009). Thyroid stimulating hormone and prospective memory functioning. Psychoneuroendochrinology, 34, 1554-1559.
Cameron, L. J. H., Kabir, Z. N., Khanam, M. A., Wahlin, Å., & Streatfield, P. K. (2010). Earning their keep: The productivity of older women and men in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25, 87-103.
Sternäng, O., Jonsson, B., Wahlin, Å., Nyberg, L., & Nilsson, L.- G. (2010). Examination of the common cause account in a population-based longitudinal study with Narrow Age Cohort Design. Gerontology, 56, 553-563.
Ferdous, T., Cederholm, T., Kabir, Z. N., & Wahlin, Å. (2010). Nutritional status and cognitive function in community living rural Bangladeshi older persons: Data from the Poverty and Health in Ageing project. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 58, 919-924.
Rana, A. K. M. M., Kabir, Z. N., Stålsby Lundborg, C., & Wahlin, Å. (2010). Health education improves both arthritis-related illness and self-rated health: An intervention study among older persons in rural Bangladesh. Public Health, 124, 705-712.
Rönnberg, J., Danielsson, H., Rudner, M., Arlinger, S., Sternäng, O., Wahlin, Å., & Nilsson, L.- G. (2011). Hearing loss is negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory but not to short-term memory. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54, 705-726.
Östlund, G., Wahlin, Å., Sunnerhagen, K. S., & Borg, K. (2011). Post polio syndrome: Fatigued patients a specific subgroup? Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 43, 39-45.
Cooray, G., Nilsson, E., Wahlin, Å., J Laukka, E., Brismar, K., & Brismar, T. (2011). Effects of intensified metabolic control on cognitive function in type 2 diabetes. Psychoneuroencochrinology, 36, 77-86.
Khanam, M. A., Streatfield, P. K., Kabir, Z. N., Chengxuan, Q., Cornelius, C., & Wahlin, Å. (2011). Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among elderly people in rural Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, 29, 1-9.
Sternäng, O., & Wahlin, Å. (2011). What Is the Role of Apolipoprotein E for Cognitive Functioning Across the Lifespan? Biological Psychiatry,70(2), 109-110.
Khanam, M. A., Qiu, C., Lindeboom, W., Streatfield, P. K., Kabir, Z. N., & Wahlin, Å. (2011). The metabolic syndrome: Prevalence, associated factors, and impact on survival among older persons in rural Bangladesh, PLoS ONE, 6(6):e20259. doi: 10.1371.
Find Wahlin's abstracts in the Annual Report database.
Book chapters
Johansson, B., & Wahlin, Å. (1998). Cognition and geropsychological assessment. In B. Edelstein (Ed.), Comprehensive clinical psychology: Clinical geropsychology (Vol. 7, pp. 25-53). Amsterdam: Elsevier Sciences.
Bäckman, L., Small, B.J., Wahlin, Å., & Larsson, M. (1999). Cognitive functioning in very old age. In F.I.M. Craik & T.A. Salthouse (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive aging (Vol. 2, pp. 499-558). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bäckman, L., Small, B.J., & Wahlin, Å. (2001). Aging and memory: Cognitive and biological perspectives. In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed., pp. 349-377). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Wahlin, Å. (2004). Health, disease, and cognitive functioning in old age. In R.A. Dixon, L. Bäckman, & L.-G. Nilsson (Eds.), New frontiers in cognitive aging (pp.279-302). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Review commissions
I am a regular reviewer for the following journals:
Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 1996-
Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 1998-
Current Psychology Letters: Behaviour, Brain & Cognition, 1998-
Psychology and Aging, 1999-
Neurology, 2001-
International Psychogeriatrics, 2001-
Aging & Mental Health, 2001-
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2002-
European Psychologist, 2006-
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 2008-
Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, 2008-
Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 2009-
Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2011-
Seminars and meetings
Throughout the years I have regularly participated and presented at public seminars and meetings. Below a couple of such events are listed, selected to show what I typically talk about on these occasions:
Wahlin, Å. (1999, Mars). Minnesfunktioner i normalt åldrande. Skärholmens stadsdelsförvaltning, Stockholm.
Wahlin, Å. (1999, November). Vad är normalt åldrande? Vilken roll spelar hälsan? Brånemarkssymposium at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Wahlin, Å. (2002, March). B-vitaminbrist kan orsaka sämre minne. ABF Norra Stor-Stockholm, Stockholm.
Wahlin, Å. (2005, November). The cognitive battery of PHA (Poverty and Health in Ageing) in Matlab. ICDDR,B, Public Health Sciences Division, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Wahlin, Å. (2008, December). Individual differences in cognitive change across the adult life span. The multifaceted impact of physical health. Institutionen för Samhällsvetenskap, Växjö Universitet, Växjö.
Wahlin, Å. (2010, June). Cognitive aging in the East and in the West. Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå.
Selected important persons
Beyond my professional and private domains, there are some persons who have meant a great deal to me. Although I actually have met and talked to only one of them, I am convinced that the common theme for these great persons is Integrity.
Anders F. Rönnblom
www.andersf.com
Francis Black
www.frankblack.net
Roy Buchanan
www.vinylrecords.ch
Kurt Wagner
www.enotes.com
