Melinda C. Power

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Boston College, 2004

Doctor of Science (Epidemiology and Environmental Health), Harvard School of Public Health, 2012

Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Epidemiology), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2012-2015

PubH 6248 - Epidemiology of Aging

Director, Institute for Brain Health and Dementia

Dr. Power is currently working on the following grants:

• Air pollution, Alzheimer's Disease and Related Outcomes.   
  • Principal Investigator:  Power
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIEHS, NIA
  • Project Period:  09/2018-08/2022

• Closing the gap between observational research and randomized trials for prevention of Alzheimer's Disease and dementia.   
  • Principal Investigator:  Power, Glymour
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIA
  • Project Period:  09/2018-04/2023

• Midlife statin use and late life cognition.  
  • Principal Investigator:  Power
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIA
  • Project Period:  08/2022-07/2024

• Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias in pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes:  the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study AD/ADRD Project.   
  • Principal Investigators:  Luschsinger, Temprosa, Nathan 
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIA
  • Project Period:  07/2022-06/2027

• Developing and evaluating a surveillance system for Alzheimer's dementia in the United States.   
  • Principal Investigator:  Rein
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIA
  • Project Period:  03/2022-02/2027

• Predictors and consequences of the timing and accuracy of clinical dementia diagnosis  
  • Principal Investigators:  Power, James
  • Funding Agency:  NIH/NIA
  • Project Period:  02/2022-01/2027

Selected publications:

• Power MC, Engelman B, Wei J, Glymour MM (online ahead of print). Closing the gap between observational research and randomized controlled trials for prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia.  Epidemiologic Reviews. 
• Weuve J, Bennett EE, Ranker L, Gianattasio KZ, Pedde M, Adar SD, Yanosky JD, Power MC (2021). Exposure to air pollution in relation to risk of dementia and related outcomes:  an updated systematic review of the epidemiologic literature.  Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(9):96001
• Power MC, Bennett EE, Turner RW, Dowling NM,  Ciarleglio A, Glymour MM,  Gianattasio KZ (2021). Trends in relative incidence and prevalence of dementia across Non-Hispanic Blacks/African Americans and Whites in the United States, 2000-2016.  JAMA Neurology, 78(3):275-284
• Bennett EE, Kwan A, Gianattasio KZ, Engelman B, Dowling NM, Power MC (2021) Estimation of dementia prevalence at the local level in the United States.  Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 7(1):e12237.
• Power MC, Gianattasio KZ, Ciarleglio AC (2020). Implications of the use of algorithmic diagnoses or Medicare claims to ascertain dementia.  Neuroepidemiology, 54(6): 462-471
• Gianattasio, KZ, Wu, Q, Glymour, MM, Power, MC. (2019) Comparison of methods for algorithmic classification of dementia status in the Health and Retirement Study.  Epidemiology 30(2): 291-302.
• Power, MC, Mormino, E, Solden, A, James, BD, Lei, Y, Armstrong, NM, Bangen, KJ, Delano-Wood, L, Lamar, M, Lim, YY, Nudelman, K, Zahodne, L, Gross, AL, Mungas, D, Widaman, KF, Schneider, J. (2018)  Combined neuropathological pathways account for age-related dementia risk. Annals of Neurology, 84(1):10-22.
• Power, MC, Lamichhane, AP, Liao, D, Xu, X, Jack, CR, Gottesman, RF, Mosley, T, Stewart, JD, Yanosky, JD, Whitsel, EA.  (2018)  The association of long-term exposure to particulate matter air pollution with brain MRI findings:  the ARIC study.  Environmental Health Perspectives. 126(2):027009.
• Power, MC, Tingle JV,  Reid, RI, Huang,J, Sharrett, AR, Coresh, J, Griswold, M, Kantarci, K, Jack, Jr., CR, Knopman, D, Gottesman, RF, Mosley, TH (2017). Midlife and Late-Life Vascular Risk Factors and White Matter Microstructural Integrity: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study. J Am Heart Assoc 6(5).
• Power, MC, Weuve, J, Sharrett, AR, Blacker, D, Gottesman, RF (2015). Statins, cognition, and dementia-systematic review and methodological commentary. Nat Rev Neurol 11(4): 220-229.
• Power, MC, Kioumourtzoglou, MA, Hart, JE, Okereke, OI, Laden F, Weisskopf, MG (2015). The relation between past exposure to fine particulate air pollution and prevalent anxiety: observational cohort study. BMJ 350: h1111
• Power, MC,Tchetgen Tchetgen EJ, Sparrow, D, Schwartz, J, Weisskopf, MG (2013). Blood pressure and cognition: factors that may account for their inconsistent association. Epidemiology 24(6): 886-893.
• Power, MC, Weisskopf, MG, Alexeeff, SE, Coull, BA, Spiro Iii, A and Schwartz, J (2011). Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Cognitive Function in a Cohort of Older Men. Environ Health Perspect 119(5): 682-687.

Please click here for an up-to-date list of all of Dr. Power's publications.