Xu Zong
University of Helsinki
Xu Zong
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Helsinki Institute for Demography and Population Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. I completed my PhD in Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki in April 2026.
My research is on the life-course social determinants of cognitive ageing and long-term care needs. I work with Finnish population-wide administrative registers and with harmonised international ageing cohorts including HRS, ELSA, SHARE and CHARLS. My current project asks whether income instability in later working life predicts dementia after 65, using annual income records linked to hospital, medication and death registers for the whole Finnish population, and examines the measurement problems that arise when exposures are constructed across open-ended careers. I also lead a work package on the exposome and social health inequalities within a Research Council of Finland project, and I am a visiting researcher at Stockholm University.
My work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, the Journal of Affective Disorders and BMC Geriatrics, and has been covered by Yle, The Daily Telegraph, EL PAÍS, AAAS and EurekAlert, Neuroscience News, Suomenmaa and STT.
FURTHER INFORMATION
| Countries | China; |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ageing in place; Artificial Intelligence; Financing LTC; Housing and care; Living alone; Living arrangements; Loneliness among older people; LTC insurance; Social connection; Social Protection; Unmet needs; |
| Methods | Analysis of administrative data; Causal inference in Long-Term Care; Longitudinal data analysis; |
| Role | Research; |
| Interest Groups | Ageing and Place; Data Science; Economics of Long-Term Care; Long-Term Care in China; Long-Term Care Policy; Quasi-experimental methods; |
| Website | https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/xu-zong/ |
| ORC.ID | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5586-3549 |
| GOOGLE SCHOLAR | https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fqtqm3wAAAAJ&hl=en |
| Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/xuzong.bsky.social |
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/xu-zong-972544344/ | |
| Research interests | long-term care, dementia, cognitive ageing, administrative register data, life course, machine learning |
| Key publications | Zong, X. (2025). The Long Arm of Childhood: The Association Between Early-Life Indoor Air Pollution Exposure and Cognitive Performance in Later Life. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118662 Zong, X., Meng, X., Silventoinen, K., Nelimarkka, M., & Martikainen, P. (2025). Heterogeneous associations between early-life religious upbringing and late-life health: Evidence from a machine learning approach. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118210 Zong, X., Guan, M., Zhang, Y., & Dong, G. (2025). Railways to better minds: The influence of high-speed rail on cognitive health inequalities. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118624 Zong, X., Simmons, C., & Yang, L. (2025). Context matters: Longitudinal associations between childhood adversity and mental health outcomes of middle-aged and older adults in 26 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119649 Zong, X., Li, Y., Liu, C., & Aguirre, E. (2025). Predicting children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties at age five using pregnancy and newborn risk factors: Evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.04.167 Zong, X., Gan, J., (2025) Unravelling the Association between Internet Use and Loneliness Among Chinese Older Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role of Potentially Moderating and Mediating Factors. BMC Geriatrics.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-025-06325-6 Zong, X., Martikainen, P., Wang, Y., Liu, L., & Silventoinen, K. (2025). Machine learning to investigate life-course social determinants of loneliness among older adults in the US, England, Israel, and 27 European countries during the pandemic. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.07.25337355 Zong, X., & Wang, H. (2024). Do early-life circumstances predict late-life suicidal ideation? Evidence from SHARE data using machine learning. Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, Artikkeli 1426876. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1426876 Wang, H., Coyte, P. C., Shi, W., Zong, X., & Zhong, R. (2023). Social Governance and Sustainable Development in Elderly Services: Innovative Models, Strategies, and Stakeholder Perspectives. Sustainability (Switzerland), 15(21), Article 15414. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115414
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