War and conflict punctuate the life of many millions of older persons around the world.  These may create complex lingering stressors that impact upon late life health.  Whether war and conflict scar or add resilience as people age is not only an important issue but one that has not received adequate attention.  This stream of research examines the link between multiple dimensions of conflict and many facets of health.  At the moment, the bulk of this research is being based in Vietnam, where wartime survivors of the conflicts in the 1960s and 1970s are now moving into older ages.  We are interested in whether the stressors of early life war and conflict exert enduring effects on health in later adulthood, the mechanisms through which this occurs, and the factors that may moderate relationships between wartime exposure and health, such as social support and family composition.

Vietnam_NIA map
Study sites for the NIA-funded project were strategically selected at the district/city level to cover a spectrum of proximity to war across northern Vietnam as indicated by intensity of bombings. The four sites for data collection are Ba Vi district, Ha Tay province; Yen Khanh district, Ninh Binh province; Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province; and Dong Hoi city, Quang Binh province.

Funded By:

Long-term Effects of War on Health of Older Persons within a Rapidly Aging Population: The Case of Vietnam, is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and runs from April 2021 to April 2025.

Early Life War Experiences and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIA)  in the U.S. and runs from 2021-2022.

Health and Aging Post Conflict: War’s Enduring Effects Among Survivors in Vietnam is a R01 Research Project Grant funded by the National Institute on Aging in the U.S. and runs from June 2017 to May 2022.

War and Biological Ageing in Vietnam: A Planning Grant to Foster Collaboration on a Novel Area of Global Research in Health and Ageing is a Planning and Dissemination grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and runs from May 2019-May 2020. 

Publications and Works in Progress:

Click HERE for VHAS publications.

Click HERE for VHAS presentations

Selected Highlighted Publications: 

A 50-Year Shadow: To understand the lasting effects of conflict, researchers look to those who lived through the Vietnam War as teens, Science.

Sara I Hamm, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Zachary Zimmer, Minh Huu Nguyễn, “Patterns of productive aging among Vietnamese war survivors: The influential role of early-life war exposure and past military service,” The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 80, Issue 8, August 2025, gbaf108, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaf108

Akbulut-Yuksel, M., Zimmer, Z., Pandey, S. et al. “Untold Story of Wartime Children: Results of the Vietnam Health and Aging Study,” Population and Research and Policy Review, 43, 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-024-09869-4

Kim Korinek, Zachary Zimmer, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Yvette Young, Long Cao Manh, Tran Khanh Toan, “Cognitive function following early life war-time stress exposure in a cohort of Vietnamese older adults,” Social Science & Medicine, Volume 349, 2024, 116800, ISSN 0277-9536, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116800

Testing lung capacity
Taking a blood pressure reading
Morning exercises are routine for many Vietnamese
Ellie Brindle talks about how to draw a blood sample
Doctors and nurses at a community medical clinic
Conducting an Interview

Thank you to Kim Korinek for the photos.