Research Interests for Keith E Whitfield

Research Interests:

Dr. Whitfield's research on individual differences in minority aging employs a two prong approach that includes studying individual people as well as members of twin pairs. Dr. Whitfield’s research examines the individual variation in health and individual differences in cognition due to health conditions. Dr. Whitfield has worked with researchers from Sweden, Russia, and the United States to examine how social, psychological, and cultural factors of cognition and healthy aging. He has completed a study that involves examining health and psycho-social factors related to health among adult African American twins from North Carolina. His current research project is a longitudinal study of cognition and health among older African Americans.

Keywords:
Twin studies, Cognitive aging, Health disparities, Cognitive vitality, Genetic and environmental influences, Gene by environment interactions
Current projects:
Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging
Baltimore Study of Black Aging: Patterns of Cognitive Aging
Recent Publications
  1. Whitfield, K.E. & Aiken, A., Minority populations and cognitive aging, in Handbook of Cognitive Aging, edited by S. Hofer, & D. Alwin (2008), pp. 384-398, Sage Publications.
  2. Whitfield, K.E., Edwards, C.L., Brandon, D., & McDougald, C., The genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptoms by age and gender in African American twins., Journal of Aging and Mental Health, vol. 12 no. 2 (2008), pp. 221-227.
  3. Aiken, A., Marsiske, M., & Whitfield, K.E., Characterizing and explaining differences in cognitive test performance between African American and European American older adults., Experimental Aging Research, vol. 34 no. 1 (2008), pp. 80-100.
  4. Kiddoe, J.M., Whitfield, K.E., Andel, R., & Edwards, C.L., Evaluating measures of cognitive impairment among African Americans., Journal of Aging and Mental Health, vol. 12 no. 4 (2008), pp. 488-493.
  5. Edwards, C.L., Bennett, G.G., Wolin, K.Y., Johnson, S., Fowler, S., Whitfield, K., Askew, S., MacKinnon, D., McDougald, C., Hubbard, R., Wellington, C., Feliu, M., Robinson, E., Misestimation of Peer Tobacco Use: Understanding Diparities in Tobacco Use., Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 100 no. 3 (2008), pp. 299-302.