Zachary Zimmer

Zachary Zimmer, PhD

Professor
Canada Research Chair in Aging and Community

Email: zachary.zimmer@msvu.ca
Phone: 902-457-5541
Office: McCain 201C
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Biography

In 2016 I began a Professorship in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology and a Canada Research Chair (CRC Tier I) in Global Aging and Community at MSVU.

My academic career began in Canada, with degrees at University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba and several years working in aging research centers at two Canadian universities (University of Manitoba and University of Victoria). I moved from Canada to the United States in 1994 to pursue graduate study, and in 1998 I completed a PhD in Sociology from University of Michigan with specialization in Demography of Aging. Since that time I have held academic and research positions at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Population Council in New York, the University of Utah and the University of California San Francisco. The privilege of the CRC provided me a much welcomed opportunity to return to Canada after twenty-two years abroad and contribute more directly to this country’s scholarly community.
Using quantitative data, principally from large surveys and government sources, my research very broadly focuses on global issues related to the well-being of older persons, studied from a demographic perspective. I am interested in demographic phenomenon related to population aging as well as the intersection of rapid social/demographic change and healthy/successful aging. Much of my work has taken place in East and Southeast Asia where population aging and socioeconomic change has been swift and where older adults face many obstacles related to the changing nature of their social environment. I have also worked in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and the United States. My scholarly work has been published in journals across a number of disciplines, such as gerontology, sociology, demography, medicine and epidemiology.

I enjoy working internationally in multidisciplinary environments and in collaborative teams. Over the course of my career, I have been involved in collaborations with scholars and other researchers at universities, government and non-government organizations around the world including UNFPA, Cambodia’s Ministry of Planning, Capital Medical University in Beijing, the National Statistical Office of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, the Taiwan Bureau of Health Promotion, and many others. I also am involved in capacity building efforts and have organized and led seminars at universities, government agencies and research organizations around the world.

Over the course of my career, at a number of universities, I have taught a variety of courses in demography, aging, health policy, research methods and statistics. In 2016 I began teaching in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at MSVU.

Selected Publications

Zachary Zimmer, Kim Korinek, Yvette Young, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Tran Khanh Toan. 2022. Early-life war exposure and later-life frailty among older adults in Vietnam: Does war hasten aging. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. 77(9): 1674-1685. (Selected as the Editor’s Choice Article for the issue.) DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbab190.

Zachary Zimmer, Kathryn Fraser, Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk and Anna Zajacova. 2022. A global study of pain prevalence across 52 countries: Examining the role of country-level contextual factors. PAIN. 163(9): 1740-1750. (Selected as the Editor’s Choice Article for the issue.) DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002557.

Zachary Zimmer, Yasuhiko Saito, Olga Theou, Clove Haviva and Kenneth Rockwood. 2021. Education, wealth, and duration of life expected in various states of frailty. European Journal of Ageing. 18(3): 393-404. DOI: 10.1007/s10433-020-00587-2.

Zachary Zimmer and Emily Treleaven. 2020. The rise and prominence of skip-generation households in lower- and middle-income countries. Population and Development Review. 46(4): 709-733. DOI: 10.1111/padr.12349.

Zachary Zimmer and Anna Zajacova. 2020. Persistent, consistent and extensive: The trend of increasing pain prevalence in older Americans. The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. 75(2): 436-447. DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbx162.

Zachary Zimmer, Florencia Rojo, Mary-Beth Ofstedal, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Yasuhiko Saito and Carol Jagger. 2019. Religiosity and health: a global comparative study. Social Science and Medicine: Population Health. 9(April): 1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.11.006.

Zachary Zimmer, Carol Jagger, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Mary Beth Ofstedal, Florencia Rojo, Yasuhiko Saito. 2016. Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review. Social Science and Medicine – Population Health. 2(December): 373-381. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.04.009. (PMCID: PMC5758000)

Zachary Zimmer, Heidi A. Hanson and Ken R. Smith. 2016. Offspring socioeconomic status and parent mortality within a historical population. Demography. 53(5): 1583-1603. DOI:10.1007/s13524-016-0502-x. (PMCID: PMC5086077)

Zimmer, Z., Jagger, C., Chiu, C., Ofstedal, M., Rojo, F., & Saito, Y. (2016). Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: A review. Social Science and Medicine – Population Health, 2, 373-381. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.04.009

Zimmer, Z., & Rubin, S. (2016). Life expectancy with and without pain in the U.S. elderly Population. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, doi: 10.1093/Gerona/glw028

Zimmer, Z., Hanson, H., & Smith, K. (2016). Childhood socioeconomic status, adult socioeconomic status, and old-age health trajectories: Connecting early, middle, and late life. Demographic Research, 34(10), 285-320. (Winner of Editor’s Choice Award for Volume 34). Available online at http:www.demographic-research.org/ Volumes/Vol34/10/. DOI: 10:4054/DemRes.2016.34.10

Zimmer, Z., Hidajat, M., & Saito, Y. (2015). Changes in total and disability-free life expectancy among older adults in China: Do they portend a compression of morbidity? International Journal of Population Studies, 1(1), 4-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJPS.2015.01.001

Zimmer, Z., Rada, C., & Stoica, C. (2014). Migration, location and provision of support to older parents: The case of Romania. International Journal of Population Ageing, 7 (3), 161-184. doi: 10.1007/s12062-014-9101-z

Zimmer, Z., Fang, X., & Tang, Z. (2014). Fifteen year disability trends among older persons in the Beijing municipality of China. Journal of Aging and Health, 26 (2), 207-230

Zimmer, Z., & Das, S. (2014). The poorest of the poor: Composition and wealth of older person households in sub-Saharan Africa. Research on Aging, 36 (3), 271-296. doi: 10.1177/016402751348589

Zimmer, Z., Martin, L., Jones B., & Nagin D. (2014). Examining late-life functional limitation trajectories and their associations with underlying onset, recovery, and mortality. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 69 (2), 275-286. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbt099

Zimmer, Z., & the CRUMP Research Team. (2012). Migration in Cambodia: Report of the Cambodian Rural Urban Migration Project (CRUMP). Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Ministry of Planning, Government of Cambodia. Download available at: http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/cambodia/?publications=5857

Zimmer, Z., & Korinek, K. (2010). Shifting coresidence near the end of life: Comparing decedents and survivors of a follow-up study in China. Demography, 47 (3), 537-554

Zimmer, Z. (2009). Household composition among elders in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of HIV/AIDS. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 71 (4), 1086-1099

Zimmer, Z. (2008). Poverty, wealth inequality and health among older adults in rural Cambodia. Social Science and Medicine, 66 (1), 57-71

Zimmer, Z., Kaneda T., & Spess, L. (2007). An examination of urban versus rural mortality in China using community and individual level data. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 62 (5), 349-357

Zimmer, Z., Knodel, J., Kim, K., & Puch, S. (2006). The impact of past conflicts and social disruption in Cambodia on the current generation of older adults. Population and Development Review, 32 (2), 333-360. (Revised version published in Susan McDaniel (ed.). 2008. Ageing. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications)

Zimmer, Z., & House, J. (2003). Education, income and functional limitation transitions among American adults: Contrasting onset and progression. International Journal of Epidemiology, 32 (6), 1089-1097

Zimmer, Z., & Kwong, J. (2003). Family size and support of older adults in urban and rural China: Current effects and future implications. Demography, 40 (1), 23-44