Started in 2023, the Population Ecology, Aging, and Health Network (PEcAHN) brings together research teams conducting intensive, long-term fieldwork in rural communities in the US and abroad. The goal of PEcAHN is to support collaborative and integrative research across sites, find common factors affecting rural and economic health disparities and solutions for addressing them, share methodological approaches for working with remote and under-resourced communities, and support and develop early career researchers with interest in these areas.
Aims for the Population Ecology, Aging, and Health Network (PEcAHN).
Aim 1. Build and develop the PEcAHN External Collaborative Network.
PEcAHN currently includes more than 20 researchers actively engaged in long-term community-based research across 13 sites in the US and abroad. We will expand this network to encompass an even greater range of sites and ecologies, with particular emphasis on incorporating projects in the rural US and enhance existing connections to institutions in the Durham, NC region.
Aim 2. Support research and multi-site collaboration in these areas through workshops and other opportunities to share discoveries and methodologies.
Through twice-yearly meetings, a community website, collaborative papers, and joint research projects across sites, PEcAHN provides opportunities for researchers to share discoveries and solutions in rural health and aging research. Working groups conduct multi-site analyses to uncover common factors affecting health and aging across populations.
Aim 3. Develop early career researchers with interests in this area.
Meetings, collaborative projects (e.g. papers), and research support provide early career researchers with opportunities to develop and build their skillset. Meetings provide opportunities to network with researchers at other sites and institutions.
Population Ecology, Aging, and Health Network (PEcAHN) Leadership and Membership
Herman Pontzer, PhD (Evolutionary Anthrology. Core E Director) Pontzer is a Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health at Duke University and a DUPRI Scholar. He has been leading the External Collaborative Network for that project since 2022. His research focuses on the impacts of physical activity and environment on daily energy expenditure, energy balance, and cardiometabolic health. Much of his research has focused on rural and remote communities in the global South. In addition to serving as the director of PEcAHN, he has worked directly with several of the research sites involved, including fieldwork with the Hadza and Daasanach communities, and collaborations with the Tsimane and Shuar communities. His research group is currently working with two projects investigating lifestyle and environmental factors affecting chronic disease and aging in two rural US communities, the PASTOR Health study (PI: David Eagle, Duke University) and the Great Smoky Mountain Study of Rural Aging (PI: William Copeland, University of Vermont).
PEcAHN Member Projects Population Ecology, Aging, and Health Network (PEcAHN) currently includes 23 researchers across 13 sites in the US and abroad. All PEcAHN member projects examine health over the life course, and all include work on chronic disease with aging, but they have a range of different foci. For example, the PASTOR Health and Great Smoky Mountain Study in the US have examined the impact of psychosocial stressors on cardiometabolic outcomes; work in Madagascar, Mississippi, and Ecuador has included analyses of infectious disease risk; work in Tanzania and Bolivia has focused on age-related cognitive decline; projects in Malaysia and Kenya have investigated the impact of economic develop on chronic disease risk. The breadth of research focus and methodology enables PEcAHN members to learn and develop new ideas and approaches.
Figure 3. The location of current (2024-25) PEcAHN research projects.
