Jean Stafford

Jean Stafford is an ACRC Fellow at the Usher Institute within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. She also holds an Honorary Senior Research Fellow position at University College London's Institute of Cardiovascular Science and is affiliated with the Karolinska Institute. Her research primarily focuses on cognitive ageing and the mental and social health of older people, with particular emphasis on dementia epidemiology and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and cognitive decline.

Dr. Stafford received her academic training at prestigious institutions:

• PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology from University College London (2015-2020)
• MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health from University College London (2014-2015, with distinction)
• MA (Hons) Psychology (First Class) from the University of Edinburgh (2010-2014), where she was awarded the Drever Prize
• International exchange at McGill University, Montreal (2012-2013)

Her research interests span cognitive ageing, dementia prevention, mental health of older people, social relationships and health, physical-mental multimorbidity, late-life psychosis, social determinants of health, and the links between neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration. Dr. Stafford applies epidemiological and causal inference methods to multiple longitudinal datasets to investigate mechanisms linking psychiatric disorders with subsequent cognitive decline and dementia, with a particular focus on how social health factors mediate cognitive outcomes in aging populations.

Dr. Stafford's publications reveal a strong emphasis on longitudinal studies of aging populations across multiple countries, with particular attention to the intersection of mental health conditions and cognitive decline. Her work frequently employs sophisticated statistical methods including causal inference techniques to address complex questions in geriatric mental health.

Dr. Stafford has received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including:

• Alzheimer's Society Postdoctoral Fellowship (2024-2028)
• Advanced Care Research Centre Fellowship (2025-present)
• NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre Postdoctoral Bridging Fellowship (2019-2021)
• Junior Presidential Research Award in Psychogeriatrics (2023)
• Drever Prize from the University of Edinburgh (2014)

As an educator and mentor, Dr. Stafford serves as module lead for the Research and Evidence Based Medicine Module for the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) program. She is open to PhD supervision and currently serves as second supervisor for a PhD student at UCL, having previously supervised ten MSc dissertation projects to completion. Her collaborative work extends across multiple international consortia, including the Social Health and Reserve in the Dementia Patient Journey (SHARED) international consortium, where she examines longitudinal relationships between social health, cognition and dementia across multiple cohort studies.