Emma Nichols

Biographic Data

ID6637582
NAMEEmma Nichols
GIVEN NAMESEmma
FAMILY NAMENichols
SIGNATURENICHOLS E
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Southern California
ORCID0000-0002-9005-3872
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS29
TOTAL CITATIONS5
AUTHOR COUNT29
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2017
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX2

  • The impact of education on dementia

    Open AccessNathalie Monnet, Emma Nichols et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2026

    Compulsory schooling laws introduced across Europe in the 20th century aimed to expand educational attainment and may have shaped key determinants of cognitive health. We exploit variations in compulsory schooling laws in England to assess whether increased education, mandated by these policies, impacts cognitive function, dementia risk, and related risk factors in older age. We focus on two major reforms: the 1947 reform, which raised the school…

  • Mechanistic pathways between adult child education and late-life parental health outcomes

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Karla Renata Flores Romero et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2026

    A growing body of evidence across global contexts supports the notion that adult child education may have upward spillover effects on late-life parental health outcomes through heterogeneous mechanistic pathways. However, comparisons of these pathways across diverse study contexts are challenging given differences in exposure and outcome definitions, modeling strategies, and covariate adjustment strategies. We sought to improve cross-national com…

  • Immigration, acculturation, and diabetes

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Hunter Green et al.ARTICLESSM - Population Health2025

    Despite evidence that Indian immigrants in high-income countries have higher diabetes risk, few studies have directly compared Indian immigrants to both Indians in India and the general population. We compared diabetes prevalence in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) study (Indian immigrants) (N = 686), the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) (Indians in India) (N = 40,496), and the Health and Retirem…

  • The measurement of cognition in large-scale cross-national surveys

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Alden L Gross et al.ARTICLEThe Journals of Gerontology…2025References: 10

    By summarizing these experiences, this article informs future efforts in enhancing the comparability and validity of cognitive assessments for cross-national aging studies, providing insights into optimizing survey design for the accurate measurement of cognitive functioning, cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. Insights also enable data users to identify the limitations of existing data, thus facilitating more informed dec…

  • Sharing common measures of the environment across continents

    Open AccessNia Clements, Adam Taggart et al.ARTICLEThe Journals of Gerontology…2025

    Harmonized measures facilitate cross-country comparisons of environmental exposures but require careful consideration of confounding by place and time and differential measurement to ensure robust inferences

  • Recommended contents for a longitudinal, population-representative study of health, retirement, and aging

    Open AccessJinkook Lee, Jenny Wilkens et al.ARTICLEThe Journals of Gerontology…2025Cited by: 2References: 4

    Recommendations can guide the appropriate design of future international comparative research. Measurement challenges across key content domains, along with the need to accurately capture contextual factors such as policies and environments that influence health and socioeconomic outcomes, require deliberate consideration

  • Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol

    Open AccessAlden L Gross, Sneha Mani et al.ARTICLEThe Journals of Gerontology…2025Cited by: 3References: 3

    We advocate for the HCAP as a structured yet adaptable framework that prioritizes measurement precision and cultural relevance, while retaining sufficient uniformity to conduct statistical harmonization across settings. What makes an HCAP an HCAP is not a strict checklist of tests, but a commitment to rigorous, culturally respectful measurement of cognitive health in older adults around the world

  • Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021

    Open AccessJaimie D Steinmetz, Katrin Seeher et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Neurology2024

    BACKGROUND: Disorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by…

  • Trajectories and correlates of poor mental health in India over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Sarah Petrosyan et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2024

    INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic had large impacts on mental health; however, most existing evidence is focused on the initial lockdown period and high-income contexts. By assessing trajectories of mental health symptoms in India over 2 years, we aim to understand the effect of later time periods and pandemic characteristics on mental health in a lower-middle income context. METHODS: We used data from the Real-Time Insights of COVID-19 in Indi…

  • The association between BMI and cognition in India

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Alden L Gross et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2024

    Underweight BMI is a risk factor for poor cognitive outcomes in adults 45 years and older and may be indicative of poor nutritional status and life-course disadvantage in India. In tandem with existing literature, supplemental analyses and effect modification results indicate that unmeasured confounding and reverse causation may explain the observed positive associations between overweight and obese BMI and cognitive functioning from cross-sectio…

  • Estimation of the global prevalence of dementia in 2019 and forecasted prevalence in 2050

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Jaimie D Steinmetz et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Public Health2022

    BACKGROUND: Given the projected trends in population ageing and population growth, the number of people with dementia is expected to increase. In addition, strong evidence has emerged supporting the importance of potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia. Characterising the distribution and magnitude of anticipated growth is crucial for public health planning and resource prioritisation. This study aimed to improve on previous forecasts of…

  • Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

    Open AccessChristopher J L Murray, Cristiana Abbafati et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2020

  • Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019

    Open AccessTheo Vos, Stephen S Lim et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2020

    BACKGROUND: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive…

  • Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders, 1990–2016

    Open AccessValery L Feigin, Emma Nichols et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Neurology2019

    BACKGROUND: Neurological disorders are increasingly recognised as major causes of death and disability worldwide. The aim of this analysis from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 is to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date estimates of the global, regional, and national burden from neurological disorders. METHODS: We estimated prevalence, incidence, deaths, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs;…

  • Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, 1990–2016

    Open AccessEmma Nichols, Cassandra Szoeke et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Neurology2019

    BACKGROUND: The number of individuals living with dementia is increasing, negatively affecting families, communities, and health-care systems around the world. A successful response to these challenges requires an accurate understanding of the dementia disease burden. We aimed to present the first detailed analysis of the global prevalence, mortality, and overall burden of dementia as captured by the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk …

  • Global, regional, and national burden of stroke, 1990–2016

    Open AccessCatherine Owens Johnson, Minh Nguyen et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Neurology2019

    BACKGROUND: Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide and the economic costs of treatment and post-stroke care are substantial. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic, comparable method of quantifying health loss by disease, age, sex, year, and location to provide information to health systems and policy makers on more than 300 causes of disease and injury, including strok…

  • The State of US Health, 1990-2016

    The US Burden of Disease Collaborators, Ali H Mokdad et al.ARTICLEJAMA2018

    Introduction: Several studies have measured health outcomes in the United States, but none have provided a comprehensive assessment of patterns of health by state. Objective: To use the results of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to report trends in the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors at the state level from 1990 to 2016. Design and Setting: A systematic analysis of published studies and available data sources estimates the…

  • Developmental disabilities among children younger than 5 years in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016

    Open AccessBolajoko O Olusanya, Adrian Davis et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet Global Health2018

    BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mandate systematic monitoring of the health and wellbeing of all children to achieve optimal early childhood development. However, global epidemiological data on children with developmental disabilities are scarce. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 provides a comprehensive assessment of prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) for development disabili…

  • Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017

    Open AccessGregory A Roth, D Abate et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BACKGROUND: Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD …

  • Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017

    Open AccessJeffrey D Stanaway, Ashkan Afshin et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BackgroundThe Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk–outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk–outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk–outcome associatio…

  • Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (Dalys) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (Hale) for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017

    Open AccessHmwe Hmwe Kyu, D Abate et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BACKGROUND: How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure o…

  • Measuring performance on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index for 195 countries and territories and selected subnational locations

    Open AccessNancy Fullman, Jamal A Yearwood et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BACKGROUND: A key component of achieving universal health coverage is ensuring that all populations have access to quality health care. Examining where gains have occurred or progress has faltered across and within countries is crucial to guiding decisions and strategies for future improvement. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) to assess personal health-care access and quality with the Healthc…

  • Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories

    Open AccessR Lozano, Nancy Fullman et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BACKGROUND: Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of "leaving no one behind", it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2…

  • Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017

    Open AccessL James, Spencer L James et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2018

    BACKGROUND: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal…

  • Measuring progress and projecting attainment on the basis of past trends of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals in 188 countries

    Open AccessNancy Fullman, Ryan M Barber et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2017

    BACKGROUND: The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are grounded in the global ambition of "leaving no one behind". Understanding today's gains and gaps for the health-related SDGs is essential for decision makers as they aim to improve the health of populations. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016), we measured 37 of the 50 health-related SDG indicators over the period 1990-2016 for 188…