Biography
Studied psychology at the University of Reykjavík in Iceland. Graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Gothenburg in 1998, with a thesis on episodic memory functioning in old age. Worked between 1998 and 2001 as a researcher at the Stockholm Aging Research Center, at the Karolinska Institute and at the School of Health Sciences at Jönköping University. Associate Professor in psychology at the University of Gothenburg since 2004.
Teaching
I am involved in teaching in various courses at all levels. My teaching includes memory and cognition, psychological aging, aging studies, statistical analyses, and research methods. I also supervise undergraduate students as well as graduate students.
Research interests
I am interested in how lifestyle, across the lifespan, can influence the development of the memory and other cognitive functions function in old age. There is a great variation in how well preserved these functions are in old people. In my research I have studied how, for example, overweight in midlife and physical activity relate to later cognitive function and risk of dementia.
Current research
I work with data from the Swedish Twin Registry. I use survey data collected in the sixties and seventies (midlife data), as well as data from two longitudinal studies that started in the eighties and the nineties (old age data) to examine if lifestyle in midlife is of importance for development of memory and cognitive function in old age as well as risk of dementia.
Selected publications
Kelly, A., Calamia, M., Koval, A., Muniz Terrera, G., Piccinin, A. M., Clouston, S., Hassing, L. B., Bennett, D. A., Johansson, B., and Hofer, S. M. (In Press). Independent and interactive impacts of hypertension and diabetes mellitus on verbal memory: A coordinated analysis of longitudinal data from England, Sweden and the United States. Psychology and Aging.
Björk Praetorius, M., Johansson, B., & Hassing, L. B. (In press). I forgot when I lost my grip - Strong associations between cognition and grip strength in level of performance and change across time in relation to impending death. Neurobiology of Aging.
Chatterjee, S., Peters, S. A. E., Woodward, M., Arango, S. M., Batty, D., Beckett, N., Beiser, A., Borenstein, A.R., Crane, P. K., Haan, M., Hassing, L. B., Hayden, K. M. , Kiyohara, T., Larson, E. B., Li, C-Y., Ninomiya, T., Ohara, T., Peters, R., Russ, T. C., Seshadri, S., Strand, B. H., Walker, R., Xu, W., & Huxley, R. R. (In Press). Meta-analysis - Type 2 diabetes as a risk factor for dementia in women compared with men: a pooled analysis of 2.3 million people comprising more than 100,000 cases of dementia. Diabetes Care.
Praetorius, M., Thorvaldsson, V., Johansson, B., & Hassing, L. B. (2014). Gender Differences in Cognitive Performance in Old Age: Adjusting for Longevity. The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 27, 129 – 137.
Praetorius, M., Thorvaldsson, V., Hassing, L. B., & Johansson, B. (2013). Substantial effects of APOE ε4 on memory decline in very old age: Longitudinal findings from a population-based sample. Neurobiology of Aging, 34, 2734–2739. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.06.002
Degl’Innocenti, A., Hassing, L. B., Lindqvist, A.-S., Andersson, H., Eriksson, L., Hagelbäck Hanson, F., Möller, N., Nilsson, T., Hofvander, B., & Anckarsäter, H. (2013). First Scientific Report from the Swedish National Forensic Psychiatric Register (SNFPR). International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 37, 231–237. doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2013.11.013
Dahl, A. K., Fauth, E. B., Ernsth-Bravell, M., Hassing, L. B., Ram, N., & Gerstof, D. (2013). Body Mass Index, change in Body Mass Index, and survival in old and very old persons. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61, 512–518. doi: 10.1111/jgs.12158
Dahl, A. K., Hassing, L. B., Fransson, E., I., et al. (2013). Body mass index across midlife and cognitive change in late life. International Journal of Obesity, 37, 296 – 302. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2012.37.
Dahl, A. K. & Hassing, L. B. (2012). Obesity and Cognitive Aging - a Systematic Review. Epidemiologic Reviews. doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxs002.
Hassing, L. B. (2011). Psykisk och kognitiv hälsa i ett livsloppsperspektiv. Psykologtidningen, 13-15.
Berg, A. I., Hassing, L. B., Thorvaldsson, V., & Johansson, B. (2011). Personality and personal control make a difference for life satisfaction in the oldest-old: Findings from a longitudinal population based study of individuals 80 and older. European Journal of Ageing, 8,13-20. doi: 10.1007/s10433-011-0181-9.
Hassing, L. B., Dahl, A., Pedersen, N. L. & Johansson, B. (2010). Overweight in midlife is related to lower cognitive function 30 Years Later: A prospective study with longitudinal assessments. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 29, 543-552. doi: 10.1159/000314874.
Dahl, A., Hassing, L. B., Fransson, E., & Pedersen, N. L. (2010). Agreement between self-reported and measured height, weight, and Body Mass Index in old age – A longitudinal study with 20 years of follow-up. Age and Ageing. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afq038.
Hassing, L. B., Dahl, A., Thorvaldsson, V., Berg, S., Gatz, M., Pedersen, N. L. & Johansson, B. (2009). Overweight in midlife and risk of dementia: A 40-year follow-up study. International Journal of Obesity, 33, 893-898. doi:10.1038/ijo.2009.104.
Dahl, A., Hassing, L. B., Fransson, E., Berg, S., Gatz, M., Reynolds, C., & Pedersen, N. L. (2009). Being overweight in midlife is associated with lower cognitive ability and steeper cognitive decline in late life. Journals of Gerontology A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 1, 57-62. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glp035.
Berg, A. I., Hassing, L. B., Nilsson, S. E., & Johansson, B. (2009). “As long as I’m in good health”. The relationship between medical diagnoes and life satisfaction in the oldest-old. Aging, Clinical, and Experimental Research, 21, 307-313.
Berg, A. I., Hoffman, L., Hassing L. B., McClearn, G., & Johansson, B. (2009). What matters, and what matters most for change in life satisfaction in the oldest-old: A study over 6-years among individuals 80+. Aging and Mental Health, 13, 191-201. doi: 10.1080/13607860802342227
Thorvaldsson, V., Hofer, S. M., Hassing, L. B., & Johansson, B. (2008). Cognitive Change as Conditional on Age Heterogeneity in onset of Mortality-Related Processes and Repeated Testing Effects, in Scott M. Hofer and Duane F. Alwin eds., Handbook of Cognitive Aging: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Sage Publications, Inc.: New York. Pages 284-297.
