Yurun Cai

Dr. Cai is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Health and Community Systems at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. Her research focus is aging, chronic musculoskeletal pain, accelerometer-measured physical activity, and cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults. Dr. Cai has led several internally and externally funded research projects as the Principal Investigator (PI) including the National Institute on Aging (NIA) R03 project titled “A Novel Physical Activity Metric Predicts Cognitive and Brain Aging and ADRD risk” where she developed a novel physical activity metric derived from continuous accelerometer signals to quantify daily activity patterns and predict cognitive decline and dementia. Funded by Research Catalyst Award and Aging and Gerontological Nursing Research (AGE) HUB, Dr. Cai led the PRIME (Pain and activity Rhythms In Multisite-pain Elders) pilot study to unravel the complex relationship between pain and physical activity using ecological momentary assessment and wearable devices in older adults with multisite pain. Dr. Cai is a co-investigator on several multidisciplinary studies including a Jewish Healthcare Foundation-funded project titled “Using Gait Data to Inform Prescription Practice among Nursing Home Residents to Reduce Medication-Induced Gait Disturbances”. By integrating wearable sensor technology, this study aims to collect real-time vital sign and gait data in nursing home settings to optimize medication safety and prevent gait disturbances and falls among nursing home residents.

As a OSCAR scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), Dr. Cai is committed to early detection of neurodegeneration and dementia using digital biomarkers. She has published extensively in high-impact aging journals, including Age and Ageing, Alzheimer's & Dementia, Journal of the American Geriatric Society, and the Journals of Gerontology Medical Sciences. She has also presented at national and international conferences including the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), IASP World Congress on Pain, and Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC). In 2023, she was honored with the prestigious Health Sciences Research Award from the Gerontological Society of America.

Research Areas & Scholarly Emphasis

Dr. Cai's research focus is in Gerontology, Physical Activity, Wearable Sensors, Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain, and Cognitive Impairment.

Teaching

Dr. Cai teaches NUR1054 Nursing Care of Older Adults.

Service

Dr. Cai serves as Co-chair of the Pain Epidemiology SIG in the USASP (United States Association for the Study of Pain); an Editorial board member of Frontiers in Public Health; a manuscript reviewer for top aging journals including Age and Ageing; and is a conference abstract reviewer for GSA and USASP