Funding & Support
Funding Acknowledgements
The Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) gratefully acknowledges funding by the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), and in particular the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) that have allowed the MLSFH to continue for more than 25 years. The MLSFH also gratefully acknowledges generous support by the Population Aging Research Center (PARC), the Population Studies Center (PSC), the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics (LDI), the Institute on Aging (IOA) and the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), all at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Swiss National Science Foundation R4D program that helped develop the MLSFH aging research agenda.
Current & recent MLSFH Support
Adversity, Aging and ADRD Risk among the Global Poor: A Biosocial Lifecourse Approach (NIA R01AG079527, 2023-2028, MPIs H.-P. Kohler & L. Schmitz)
The project will supplement a quarter-century of social and contextual data in the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health with additional longitudinal measures of cognition and genomic and epigenomic data to investigate critical factors contributing to accelerated aging in an low-income population with extensive lifecourse adversities, and analyze the relationship between epigenetic biomarkers and cognitive function to evaluate the biosocial determinants of ADRD risk.
Surviving an Epidemic: Families and Well-Being, Malawi 1998-2020 (NICHD R01 HD087391, 2017-2024, MPIs H.-P. Kohler & P. Anglewicz)
This project investigates the determinants of surviving the AIDS epidemic by extending the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health until 2022, and addressing questions such as: what predicted survival, and factors influencing resilience and well-being among the cohort of individuals (and their families) who survived the AIDS epidemic and are now reaching middle to old age in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent HIV Risk: Causal Inferences from a High HIV Prevalence Context (NICHD R01 HD090988, 2016-2024, MPIs R. Kidman and H.-P. Kohler)
Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are potentially important social determinants of adolescent HIV risk. This project will expand the MLSFH to investigate the consequences, mediators, and moderators of childhood adversity on adolescent HIV risk, with the aim to explain why some adolescents engage in high risk behaviors and contract HIV, while others do not, and to identify modifiable targets for intervention.
Inclusive Social Protection for Chronic Health Problems (Swiss National Science Foundation R4D Grant 400640_160374, 2016-2022, PI J. Maurer)
This project collects unique longitudinal data that permit the causal impact of chronic illness on work capacity in informal economies, such as Malawi, and identify and evaluate the costs and the benefits of diagnosis and treatment programs that target the rising burden of chronic illness in low- and middle-income countries.
Leveraging Social Networks and Linkage to Care to Foster Healthy Aging in a Low-Income Context (NIA R03 AG069817, 2020-2023, PI I. Kohler)
This project leverages the MLSFH Mature Adults Cohort for explorative research to inform the development of cost-effective and sustainable interventions that target social networks and social diffusion as an effective strategy to foster healthy aging among older persons, focusing specifically with respect to cardiovascular diseases, poor cognitive and mental health, and chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Other current/recent funding
NICHD R03 HD111618 Marriage and Health in Malawi, 2023-2025 (MPIs P. Anglewicz and S. Chae)
Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics (LDI) Pilot Grant, Managing the Covid-19 Pandemic on a Dollar a Day: Determinants of Vaccinations Uptake in a Low-Income sub-Saharan African Context, 2023-24 (PI I. Kohler)
Penn Making a Difference in Global Communities, Diverse Global Communities and Local Resource Allocation, 2020-22 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and G. Grossman)
University of Glasgow Reinvigorating Research Grant, Behavioural Foundations of Pandemic Behaviours in Low-Income Contexts, 2021-23 (PI A. Ciancio)
Penn Global Engagement Fund Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementia Among the Global Poor, 2021-22 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and N. Coe)
NIA R21 AG053763 The Benefits of Knowledge: Mortality Risks, Mental Health and Life-Cycle Behaviors, 2016-19 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and A. Delavande)
Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics (LDI) Pilot Grant, The Benefits of Knowledge: Mortality Risks, Mental Health and Life-Cycle Behaviors, 2016-17 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and A. Delavande)
NICHD R21 HD071471 Migration and Health in Malawi, 2012-14 (MPIs P. Anglewicz and H.-P. Kohler)
NICHD R01 RHD053781 Consequences of High Morbidity and Mortality in a Low Income Country, 2007-14 (PI H.-P. Kohler)
Institute on Aging, Aging (IOA) Pilot Grant, Resource Networks and Mental Health in a Poor High-Risk Disease Environment, 2011-12 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and I. Kohler)
Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Developmental Award, Mental Health, HIV and Aging in a Poor High-Risk Disease Environment, 2011-13 (MPIs H.-P. Kohler and I. Kohler)