Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, PhD, MSPH

Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, PhD, MSPH is a medical instructor in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Division of Behavioral Medicine & Neurosciences at Duke University. She is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University and serves as the Associate Lead for the Outreach Recruitment and Engagement Core of the Duke-UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Collaborative. She received her PhD in Aging Studies from the University of South Florida and completed a postdoctoral NIH/NIA-funded fellowship at Duke University.

Ketterl’s research focuses on the epidemiology of cognitive function, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Her current research explores the association between environmental factors such as pesticide exposures and cognitive health. Her RCMAR project will examine if race/ethnicity and geographic location modify the association between environmental chemical exposures and cognitive function.

RCMAR Pilot Project Title:

"The Racial/Ethnic and Geographical Connection Between Cognitive Function and Environmental Chemicals in Older Adults."

Recent publications:

Chanti-Ketterl M, Pieper CF, Yaffe K, Plassman BL. Associations Between Traumatic Brain Injury and Cognitive Decline Among Older Male Veterans: A Twin Study. Neurology. 2023 Oct 31;101(18):e1761-e1770. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207819. Epub 2023 Sep 6. PMID: 37673685; PMCID: PMC10634649.
Yang YC, Walsh CE, Shartle K, Stebbins RC, Aiello AE, Belsky DW, Harris KM, Chanti-Ketterl M, Plassman BL. An Early and Unequal Decline: Life Course Trajectories of Cognitive Aging in the United States. J Aging Health. 2024 Mar;36(3-4):230-245. doi: 10.1177/08982643231184593. Epub 2023 Jun 19. PMID: 37335551; PMCID: PMC10728348.

Recent Work

Sex Differences in the Association Between Metabolic Dysregulation and Cognitive Aging: The Health and Retirement Study

Dysregulation of some metabolic factors increases the risk of dementia. It remains unclear if overall metabolic dysregulation, or only certain components, contribute to cognitive aging and if these associations are sex specific.

Life-Course Trajectories of Body Mass Index From Adolescence to Old Age: Racial and Educational Disparities

This study aims to fill the gap using an innovative life-course research design and analytic methods to model BMI trajectories from early adolescence to old age across 20th-century birth cohorts and test sociodemographic variation in such trajectories.

TBI and Increased Risk of Non-Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia in Older Male Twins

Several studies have reported an association between traumatic brain injury(TBI) and increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease(AD) and all cause dementia. Considering the heterogeneous genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to development of dementia, co-twin control analyses provide a level of control for confounding factors that is difficult to achieve with other case-control designs.

Long-Term Pesticide Use and Risk of Dementia in the Agricultural Health Study of Memory in Aging

Pesticide use has been associated with increased risk of dementia in some, but not all studies; however, little is known about the long-term impact of specific pesticides on dementia risk.