Cardiovascular Aging
Studies cardiovascular disease progression, valvular heart disease, aortic stenosis, and disease-free life expectancy in aging populations.
Cardiovascular Epidemiology | Causal Inference | UK Biobank
Data-Driven Epidemiology& Public Health Research
Utilizing large-scale cohorts, genetic evidence, and biomarker data to study the etiology of cardiovascular and chronic diseases.
Proven expertise in synthesizing longitudinal, genetic, and biomarker data to dissect disease mechanisms with survival analysis, multistate models, and causal inference. A warm, reliable collaborator who communicates clearly across clinical, statistical, and engineering teams, and quickly adopts new analytical and AI-assisted research workflows.
Actively seeking Postdoctoral Fellowship or related research scientist opportunities. Interested PIs and collaborators are warmly welcome to get in touch.
500K+
UK Biobank participants
2021-
Assistant Research Fellow
Ph.D.
Preventive Medicine
Research Focus
Population-scale evidence for cardiovascular prevention.
Complex Cohorts
Builds reproducible R and Python pipelines for phenotypic and genotypic data extraction, cleaning, quality control, and analysis.
Causal Methods
Uses survival analysis, multistate models, Mendelian randomization, propensity scores, GLMM, and SEM to evaluate mechanisms and interventions.
Flagship Projects
Population-scale cohort research with clinically interpretable outcomes.
BMC Medicine | Valvular Heart Disease
Lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and valvular heart disease progression.
Quantified how modifiable lifestyle factors relate to VHD onset, mortality, and life expectancy across socioeconomic groups.
164,775
UK Biobank adults aged 60+
5,132
incident VHD cases
1,418
deaths after VHD
4-5
additional life years linked to ideal lifestyle
Study Question
Can healthier lifestyle slow the transition from no VHD to incident VHD and death, including among older adults with lower socioeconomic status?
Methods
UK Biobank EHR-linked cohort; five-factor lifestyle score covering smoking, obesity, physical activity, diet, and sleep; Townsend-based SES stratification; three-state Gompertz multistate models; transition-specific HRs, interaction testing, weighted life tables, and sensitivity analyses by CVH metric, AS/MR subtype, SES definition, early events, and imputed covariates.
Key Findings
Ideal lifestyle was consistently associated with lower VHD incidence and lower mortality transitions, with clinically readable gains of about 4-5 additional life years across socioeconomic strata.
Why It Matters
Addresses a prevention gap in valvular heart disease, an aging-related burden often left outside standard cardiovascular prevention. By translating lifestyle into VHD progression and life-expectancy gains across socioeconomic groups, the study reframes low-cost prevention as both a clinical strategy and a health-equity tool.
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology | Type 2 Diabetes
Cardiovascular health and ASCVD-free life expectancy in type 2 diabetes.
Estimated whether higher Life's Essential 8 cardiovascular health can narrow the ASCVD-free life expectancy gap for patients with type 2 diabetes.
246,183
UK Biobank adults
10,579
participants with type 2 diabetes
2,211
incident ASCVD cases in diabetes
591
post-ASCVD deaths in diabetes
Study Question
Can higher cardiovascular health extend ASCVD-free life expectancy in people with type 2 diabetes toward levels observed in people without diabetes?
Methods
Type 2 diabetes was ascertained from self-report, hospital records, medication records, and HbA1c; Life's Essential 8 CVH score integrated diet, activity, nicotine exposure, sleep, BMI, lipids, glucose, and blood pressure; three-state Gompertz multistate models estimated ASCVD onset and post-ASCVD death; weighted transition rates, population-based life tables, sex- and age-specific estimates, MICE, and Monte Carlo bootstrapping quantified ASCVD-free life expectancy.
Key Findings
Higher CVH extended total and ASCVD-free life expectancy among participants with type 2 diabetes, narrowing the gap toward peers without diabetes while preserving a clear prevention message.
Why It Matters
Moves diabetes prevention beyond risk-factor control toward disease-free lifespan. By quantifying ASCVD-free life expectancy under Life's Essential 8 cardiovascular health, the study supports a management paradigm focused on closing the survival-quality gap between people with and without diabetes.
Experience & Education
Training and appointments.
2021-present
Assistant Research Fellow
Equivalent to Assistant Research Scientist in the U.S. academic system.
Cardiovascular Key Laboratory of Zhejiang Province, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Works within the Department of Cardiology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, a National Clinical Key Specialty and nationally leading cardiovascular center, with interventional cardiology procedure volume ranked among the global top three.
Clinical Collaboration
Provides epidemiologic and biostatistical support for clinician-led studies, advises physicians on clinical research design and statistical strategy, maintains research databases, and delivers practical training in medical statistics and randomized controlled trial design for cardiology clinicians.
UK Biobank Research
Lead researcher for UK Biobank Application No. 86898, managing data resources for more than 500,000 participants and building reproducible R/Python pipelines for complex phenotypes, EHR-derived outcomes, biomarker data, and large-scale genotypic databases.
2015-2020
Ph.D. in Preventive Medicine and Health Education
School of Public Health, Fudan University
Focused on smoking cessation interventions, mobile health engagement, and evaluation of smoke-free legislation using mixed methods, SEM, LCA, GLMM, and longitudinal modeling.
2018-2019
Visiting Ph.D. Student
Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, University of Melbourne
Visiting Ph.D. student under the mentorship of Professor Ron Borland, working within the School of Psychological Sciences on behavior change theory, smoking cessation research, and intervention evaluation.
2010-2015
Bachelor of Medicine, Preventive Medicine
School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University
Major Research Experience
Current and completed projects.
2022-present
Non-genetic risk exposures, genetic predisposition, and cardiovascular diseases
Lead Researcher, UK Biobank
Leads UK Biobank Application No. 86898, managing the full lifecycle of research databases for more than 500,000 participants and building reproducible R/Python pipelines for complex longitudinal phenotypes, EHR-derived outcomes, biomarkers, and large-scale genotypic data. This program connects clinically interpretable cardiovascular questions with population-scale methods, including lifestyle and socioeconomic determinants of valvular heart disease progression, cardiovascular health and ASCVD-free life expectancy in type 2 diabetes, Mendelian randomization studies of aortic stenosis initiation and progression, and sex- and genetic-specific modifiable factors for aortic stenosis in older adults.
2016-2019
Theory-Driven mHealth Intervention for Smoking Cessation
PhD candidate, 2016-2019
Used behavior change theories and behavior change techniques to develop intervention frameworks, identify mHealth engagement features, and evaluate intervention effectiveness using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods.
2015-2019
Advocacy and Evaluation of Comprehensive Smoke-Free Legislation in Shanghai
PhD candidate, 2015-2019
Designed city-wide surveys, monitored indoor air quality and nicotine exposure, and used GLMM to assess changes in observed smoking behavior and indoor secondhand smoke concentrations before and after policy implementation.
Publications
Selected first-author work, then collaborative papers.
Selected first-author work
Cardiovascular health and life expectancy free of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease among patients with type 2 diabetes: a cohort study.
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 2025. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf742.
Association of lifestyle with valvular heart disease progression and life expectancy among elderly people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
BMC Medicine. 2024;22(1):367. doi: 10.1186/s12916-024-03576-9.
Design features for improving mobile health intervention user engagement: systematic review and thematic analysis.
Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020;22(12):e21687. doi: 10.2196/21687.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of comprehensive smoke-free legislation in indoor public places in Shanghai, China.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(20):4019. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16204019.
Research progress of smoking cessation intervention through smartphone applications.
Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Medical Science). 2017;37(02):161-165.
Associations of serum testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin with the risk of degenerative valvular heart diseases in men and women.
Submitted. Co-first author.
Collaborative papers
Efficacy and Safety of Ciprofol Alone versus Ciprofol with Fentanyl for Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial.
Drug Design, Development and Therapy. 2025;19:5231-5241. doi: 10.2147/DDDT.S516064.
Evaluation of aortic arch calcification to predict prognosis after transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
Scientific Reports. 2025;15:6396. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-83536-8.
Cerebral ischemic lesions after transcatheter aortic valve implantation in patients with non-calcific aortic stenosis.
Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2022;11(21):6502. doi: 10.3390/jcm11216502.
The potential psychological mechanism of subjective well-being in migrant workers: a structural equation models analysis.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(12):2229. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16122229.
Conference Abstracts
Conference abstracts and oral presentations.
2024
The influence of cardiovascular health on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease progression and life expectancy among individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Yanxia Wei, Xianbao Liu, Jian'an Wang. Circulation. 2024;150(Suppl_1):A4121568-A4121568.
2019
An empirical examination of an integrated model for individual smoking cessation among Chinese adults.
Yanxia Wei, Ron Borland, Pinpin Zheng. Accepted by the SRNT 26th Annual Meeting.
2017
Impact of tobacco advertising on college students' smoking in Shanghai.
Yanxia Wei, Pinpin Zheng. Oral Presentation at the 18th National Conference on Tobacco Control, China.
2016
Measurement of secondhand smoke in the smoking room and passengers' opinion in public transport sites, Shanghai.
Yanxia Wei, Pinpin Zheng. Oral Presentation at the 11th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, China.
Skills