Adult Health and Behavior (AHAB) AgeWell Study

For the AHAB AgeWell Study, members of the AHAB Wave 2 cohort are being invited to participate in remote or in-person visits to update their health information, and provide further information regarding exposures access their lifespan, including where they lived, jobs they’ve had, and major life events. Recent studies show that these lifespan factors relate to later life health outcomes. This study will specifically explore the connection between where you lived over time and your health through a mechanism called epigenetic aging.

Epigenetic age is like a biological clock within your cells that measures how much you’ve aged based on chemical “tags” (also called methylation) on your DNA. Your DNA is like an instruction manual for your body, telling your cells how to work, grow, and repair themselves. Over time, you can acquire chemical “tags” on your DNA due to aging as well as environmental and lifestyle factors. We will measure the prevalence of these chemical “tags” to estimate your epigenetic age. This technique differs from genetic techniques used to identify individual genes. 

Study Newsletters

Thank you to the participants involved in the AHAB Study! Click below to view newsletters with updates about the study.

Winter 2026

Information for Participants

If you participated in AHAB Wave 2 (2017-2024), you are eligible to participate in the AgeWell Study, and the AHAB team will be reaching out to you to invite you to participate.

Participating in the AgeWell Study involves:

  • Completing a questionnaire on your residential, school, and work history

  • Completing a questionnaire on your physical and emotional health and well-being

  • Completing an interview to discuss where you lived over your lifespan, update your medications, and complete a brief cognitive assessment

You can participate in the AgeWell Study completely at remotely – our survey and interview can be done virtually from your computer.

In-Person Visits

While the AgeWell Study can be completed remotely, you can complete the study in-person at our office if you prefer.

In your previous AHAB participation, you may remember coming in person to our office at 3943 O’Hara St. (Old Engineering Hall). Old Engineering Hall will be under construction during the start of the AgeWell Study, so in-person study visits will be held down the street at 3810 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (Sennott Square). Here is the link to Sennott Square on Google Maps: Sennott Square, University of Pittsburgh – Google Maps

Sennott Square is the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychology building, and has several classrooms, labs, offices, and research participant meeting spaces. If you choose to drive to the office, there is parking available underneath the building that we will reimburse.