Renato Ferreira Leitao Azevedo

Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Institute of Gerontology

Assistant Professor

Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Institute of Gerontology

Renato F. L. Azevedo, Ph.D., joined the UGA faculty in August 2024, as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Gerontology and Epidemiology & Biostatics (EPIBIO) Department.

Dr. Azevedo earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a focus on Cognitive Sciences of Teaching and Learning and Educational Statistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He completed his Postdoctoral Training at the Human Factors and Aging Laboratory within the College of Applied Health Sciences, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

This Fall 2024, Dr. Azevedo is teaching GRNT 3200e – Intro to Lifespan Health Psychology.

His research is dedicated to the investigation of relationships among cognition, decision-making, risk perception, aging, and expertise in domains such as health, education, and behavioral accounting/economics. His work often focuses on the design, development and use of human-centered technological interventions and data visualizations to facilitate positive behavior changes, successful decision-making, promoting health, education, and wellness, which often includes how technology can ameliorate inequities.

As postdoctoral research associate, Dr. Azevedo was the Illinois site lead for a US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multisite randomized controlled trial (RCT), a multidisciplinary project focuses on developing technology-based systems to improve medication adherence for hypertensive older adults. In another NIH-funded RCT, Renato is also part of a multidisciplinary team conducting needs assessments and usability tests to redesign health technology for people with mild cognitive impairment.

He holds leadership positions within the American Psychological Association (Division 21 – Applied Experimental & Engineering Psychology), serving as the representative of members-at-large, webmaster, and the upcoming Program Chair for the 2025 Annual Convention.

Education

Postdoctoral Research Associate: College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021-2024
Doctor of Philosophy: Educational Psychology, Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021
Master’s Degree: Applied Statistics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2016
Master’s Degree: Accountancy, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2010
Bachelor’s Degree: Accountancy, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2007
Bachelor’s Degree: Information Systems, Anhembi Morumbi University, Brazil, 2006

Areas of Expertise

cognition, decision-making, risk perception, aging, expertise, human factors, health technology, data visualizations

Honors, Awards, and Achievements

2023 – 2024 Mistletoe Research Fellowship (MRF) ($10,000), Momental Foundation.
2023 – 2024 CREATE Trainee Pilot Project Grant ($10,000), Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE).
2023 – 2024 GIANT Diversity Leadership Award ($2,000), The Grainger College of Engineering Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
2022 George E. Briggs Dissertation Award, Division 21 – Applied Experimental & Engineering Psychology, American Psychological Association (APA)
2021 List of teachers ranked as excellent by their students (Outstanding, Fall 2020, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
2020 Joseph H. Smith Award ($750), Student Leadership Awards and Scholarships (SALAS), Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, UIUC
2020 Hardie Dissertation Award ($2,000), College of Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2020 List of teachers ranked as excellent by their students, Fall 2019, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
2019 Honorable Mention – Division 21 Poster Contest (now Robert W. Proctor Best Student Poster Award), American Psychological Association (APA).
2017 – 2018 William Chandler Bagley Doctoral Scholarship / Russell & Janet Zwoyer Scholarship ($1000), College of Education, UIUC
2017 Block Grant Award ($1300), Graduate College/College of Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
2017 Thomas and Margaret Huang Award for Graduate Research ($3500), Beckman Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
2018 List of teachers ranked as excellent by their students, Fall 2017, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Affiliations

American Psychological Association (APA) – Division 21 – Applied Experimental & Engineering Psychology – Members at Large, 2025
Annual Convention Program Chair, and Webmaster
American Psychological Association (APA) – Division 20 – Adult Development and Aging – Member
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) – Product Design Technical Group (PDTG) – Communications
Gerontological Society of America (GSA) – Member

Course Instruction

GRNT 3200e – Intro to Lifespan Health Psychology (Fall, 2024)

Selected Publications

Nie, Q., Morrow, D. G., Azevedo, R. F. L., & Rogers, W. A. (2024). Developing feedback visualizations to support older adults’ medication adherence. Human Factors in Healthcare, 5, Article 100076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hfh.2024.100076

Azevedo, R. F. L., Garcia-Retamero, R., Morrow, D. G., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Gu, K. (2023). The influence of memory for and affective response to health messages on self-care behavioral intentions. Human Factors in Healthcare, 4(100058). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hfh.2023.100058

Trinh, M., Harris, M., Azevedo, R. F. L., & Rogers, W. A. (2023). Understanding Older Adults’ Perceptions of mHealth Apps Using the Technology Readiness Index – Health. Gerontechnology, 22(1) 1-7, https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2023.22.1.841.10

Azevedo, R.F.L., Nicholas, J., Lee, J., Insel, K., & Rogers, W. (2022). A Transdisciplinary Team Approach to Technology Development to Support Health and Well-
being. Innovation in Aging, 6 (sup. 1), 310. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igac059

Azevedo, R. F. L., Trinh, M., Mitzner, T. L., Harris, M. T., & Rogers, W. A. (2022, October). Designing Instructional Materials for Older Adults to Successfully Onboard and Use mHealth Applications. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 66th Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA

Dunn Lopez, K., Chin, C.-L., Azevedo, R. F., L., Kaushik, V., Roy, B. Schuh, W., Banks, K., Sousa, V. & Morrow, D.G. (2021). Electronic Health Record Usability and Workload Changes over Time for Provider and Nursing Staff following Transition to New EHR. Applied Ergonomics, 93, 103359

Morrow, D., Azevedo, R. F. L., Garcia-Retamero, R., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., Huang, T., Schuh, W., Gu, K., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Contextualizing Numeric Clinical Test Results for Gist Comprehension: Implications for EHR Patient Portals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 25(1), 41-61.

Morrow, D., & Azevedo, R. F. L. (2018). Acquiring and Maintaining Expertise in Aging Populations. In: P. Ward, J. M. Schraagen, J. Gore, & E. Roth. The Oxford Handbook of Expertise. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Morrow, D., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., Huang, T. Schuh, W., Azevedo, R. F. L., Gu, K., Zhang, Y., Roy, B. & Garcia-Retamero, R. (2017). A multidisciplinary approach to design and evaluating electronic medical record portal messages that support patient self-care. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 69, 63-74