Departmental Affiliations
Jennifer Deal, PhD '13, MHS '07, leads research dedicated to improving the health and well-being of older adults, with a focus on brain aging, sensory health, and disability across the course of life.
Contact Info
Research Interests
aging; cognitive aging; cognition; cognitive decline; dementia; disability; epidemiology; hearing loss; retinal; sensory health
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Experiences & Accomplishments
Public health prevention efforts are needed to reduce cognitive decline and delay diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Worldwide, 47 million older adults have ADRD, and current treatments are not accessible to most of these individuals because of access, cost and risks of side effects. Without the implementation of prevention strategies, this number is expected to nearly triple by 2050. To combat this challenge, my research is focused on understanding how sensory loss and vascular factors impact the aging brain and cognitive function, including the pathways that link the two. Two-thirds of adults over the age of 70 have a clinically meaningful hearing loss that may impact everyday communication and may causally increase ADRD risk through its effects of distorted peripheral encoding of sound on cognitive load, changes in brain structure/function, and/or reduced social engagement. Randomized controlled trial data of hearing treatment to delay cognitive decline shows short-term protective effects in subgroups. Building on those findings, my work is focused on what trial data cannot tell us – how treatment benefits some older adults (the pathways involved), and who is most likely to benefit or may need tailored or alternative interventions.
My methodological work is rooted in a commitment to maximizing the health and inclusion of individuals with disabilities. I have led work on the measurement of cognitive function in older adults with sensory loss, including analyzing how missing data and/or mode of cognitive testing may bias cognitive test results in older adults with sensory loss, as well as well as how mode of testing and study exclusion criteria may impact the participation and inclusion of older adults with sensory loss in research studies. I also have expertise in the estimation of trajectories of change in functional outcomes using data from large observational epidemiologic studies in the presence of informative drop-out.
Honors & Awards
Rising Star Award, American Geriatrics Society / National Institute of Health U13 Sensory Impairment and Cognitive Decline Workshop, Bethesda, MD (2017)
Outstanding Teaching Faculty, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Select Publications
Selected publications:
Deal JA, Betz J, Lin FR, Reed NS. Interpreting Results from Epidemiologic Studies. Seminars in Hearing. 2021 Feb;42(1):3-9. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1725996. Epub 2021 Apr 15. PMID: 33883787; PMCID: PMC8050417.
Deal JA, Betz J, Yaffe K, Harris T, Purchase-Helzner E, Satterfield S, Pratt S, Govil N, Simonsick EM, Lin FR. Hearing Impairment and Incident Dementia and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: The Health ABC Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2017 May 1;72(5):703-709. PMCID:PMC5964742
Deal JA, Gross AL, Sharrett AR, Abraham AG, Coresh J, Carlson M, Griswold M, Mosley T, Power MC, Ramulu R, Reed NS, Lin FR, Swenor BK. Hearing Impairment and Missing Cognitive Test Scores in a Population-Based Study of Older Adults: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2021 Oct;17(10):1725-1734. doi: 10.1002/alz.12339. Epub 2021 Apr 12. PMID: 33844443
Huang A, Swenor BK, Rebok G, Deal JA. Vision and hearing difficulty and effects of cognitive training in older adults. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. 2024 Apr 9;16(2):e12537. doi: 10.1002/dad2.12537. PMID: 38595912; PMCID: PMC11002773.
Liu C, Nagarajan N, Assi L, Jiang K, Powell DS, Pedersen E, Rosman L, Villavisanis D, Carlson MC, Swenor BK, Deal JA. Assessment of Hearing and Vision Impairment in Cohort Studies Collecting Cognitive Data in Older Adults. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2022 Feb 1. doi: 10.1002/alz.12575. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35102691.
Marino F, Marino FR, Jiang K, Smith JR, Chen D, Tzuang M, Reed NS, Swenor BK, Deal JA, Rebok GW, Huang A. Inclusion of hearing and vision impairments in cognitive training interventions. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions. 2023 Feb 20;9(1):e12374. doi: 10.1002/trc2.12374. PMID: 36873925; PMCID: PMC9983145.
Lin FR, Pike JR, Albert MS, Arnold M, Burgard S, Chisolm T, Couper D, Deal JA, Goman AM, Glynn NW, Gmelin T, Gravens-Mueller L, Hayden KM, Huang AR, Knopman D, Mitchell CM, Mosley T, Pankow JS, Reed NS, Sanchez V, Schrack JA, Windham BG, Coresh J, for the ACHIEVE Collaborative Research Group. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss (ACHIEVE): a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial in the United States. Lancet. 2023 Jul 17:S0140-6736(23)01406-X. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01406-X. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37478886.