Katie Sayre

Research Overview

Katie Sayre is a biological anthropologist and social scientist whose research examines human
variation in aging, health, and behavior from evolutionary and biocultural perspectives. Her work
focuses on how physical activity, social relationships, and social and ecological environments
shape physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health across the life course, with particular
emphasis on later adulthood. By studying aging across diverse populations and lifestyles, she
aims to better understand both shared features of human aging, and the ways that local
environments and patterns of behavior contribute to variation in health and well-being at older
ages. Her research has examined physical activity and physical and cognitive function during aging
among pastoralist (Pokot) and forager (Hadza) populations in East Africa. She currently works
with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, where her work explores how aspects of
physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health contribute to well-being and healthy aging among
Tsimane and Moseten forager-farmers in lowland Bolivia. Her broader research integrates field-
based studies in subsistence-oriented populations with analyses of large population-based
datasets to investigate how social and behavioral factors contribute to healthy aging across
diverse human environments.