SMN presents at the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine 2025 Annual Meeting

We are excited to share that Dr. Elissa Epel, Director of our network, recently led a session titled "The Future of Geroscience & Stress Science" at the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine 2025 Annual Meeting. Drs. Aric Prather and Yoobin Park organized and led a trainee session titled "NIA Stress Measurement Network: Capitalizing on Harmonization Across the HRS Family of Studies," dedicated to showcasing resources and strategies for utilizing the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) dataset. The symposium outlined the stress and well-being variable harmonization efforts our network has spearheaded in collaboration with the Gateway to Aging Data team. Empirical demonstrations by Abby Hillman (Stressful life events across the lifespan and inflammation) and Dr. Ruijia Chen (The effects of social exposome on cognitive function) illustrated practical applications of these harmonized datasets in stress research.

You can find the slides for this trainee session below and resources for HRS data analysis, including the stress & well-being user guides HERE.

As researchers continue to explore the complex relationships between stress, well-being, and aging outcomes, longitudinal datasets such as HRS will enable more rigorous cross-study comparisons and meta-analyses. The resources developed through the harmonization initiatives can accelerate this process, advance our understanding of psychobiological mechanisms of stress, cultural and societal influences on aging processes, and ultimately contribute to the development of interventions that promote healthier aging across diverse populations.