This $152,400 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) will support a study by Washington State University to characterize the relationship between intraindividual cognitive variability (IICV), longitudinal changes in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures, and diabetes among older American Indians.
The study aims to: 1) examine whether IICV is associated with neurodegenerative-related MRI changes and whether diabetes moderates this...
This $200,310 project grant from the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging will fund research into the differential impact of adverse childhood experiences and aging on brain health. Specifically, the Oklahoma State University grant will pursue two aims: 1) characterize cognitive performance across emerging and older adult cohorts stratified by ACEs, and 2) characterize brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels across the two age...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) through the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) program, aims to identify and understand the role of environmental stressors in the development of Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (ADRD) and related health inequities across urban and rural populations. The $817,345 grant, awarded on July 10, 2024, will support a study that recruits...
This Project Grant award, with the ID R01AG089759, was provided by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) under the Aging Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.866). The $8,565,276 award will fund a 5-year study by Emory University, a leading research institution, to investigate multifaceted risk factors and predictive models for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) in middle-aged South Asian adults in India.
The key objectives are to: 1) Perform multimodal phenotyping and...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) provides $2,118,030 to the Regents of the University of Michigan to conduct a 20-year longitudinal study examining psychosocial risk and protective factors for cognitive functioning among middle-aged and older Black Americans. The study will re-interview approximately 2,600 participants from the original National Survey of American Life cohort to collect detailed data on a range of risk factors and...
This $2,365,042 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) supports a cross-national evaluation of the biological underpinnings of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) between the U.S. and India.
The key products and services to be delivered under this award include:
Developing harmonized measures for neurodegenerative, vascular, nutritional, and inflammatory biomarkers across study cohorts in the U.S. and India.
Analyzing associations...
This Project Grant award, valued at $332,135.00, was provided by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) under the Aging Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.866). The purpose of the award is to investigate the relationship between early-life education availability/quality and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) risk, with a focus on potential racial disparities.
The study will leverage and expand an existing occupational cohort of GM autoworkers, linking this data to historical...
This $2,377,269 project grant awarded by the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) aims to evaluate how environmental factors such as green space, air pollution, noise, and neighborhood deprivation shape cognitive outcomes and risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) in racially and ethnically diverse older adult populations. The 5-year study, titled "Environmental Resources for Individual Cognitive Health/Resilience (ENRICH)," will link...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), aims to engage American Indian (AI) adults in ceremonial practices (Gii'igoshimong) to buffer the effects of historical trauma and risk factors for substance use. The $1,154,212 award to The Johns Hopkins University will implement a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the relationship between ceremony and adult substance use, and identify...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), under the Aging Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.866), will support a comprehensive study investigating the relationship between life-course acculturation trajectories and the development of dementia in a multi-ethnic cohort of older adults.
The $460,844 award will fund the "LIFE-COURSE ACCULTURATION TRAJECTORIES AND DEMENTIA IN A MULTI-ETHNIC COHORT OF OLDER ADULTS: THE MESA ACCULTURATION AND DEMENTIA...
PSYCHOLOGICAL RISK FACTORS, QUALITY OF LIFE, COMMUNITY, AND BRAIN AGING IN AMERICAN INDIANS: THE STRONG HEART STUDY - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT EVERY 65 SECONDS SOMEONE IN THE US IS DIAGNOSED WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND RELATED DEMENTIAS (ADRD). AMERICAN INDIAN (AI) ADULTS HAVE GREATER BURDEN OF CEREBROVASCULAR AND ADRD-RELATED COMORBIDITIES THAN THEIR NON-HISPANIC WHITE COUNTERPARTS. AI ADULTS ALSO SUFFER DISPROPORTIONATE STRESS AND TRAUMA, AND CONCOMITANT HIGH RATES OF DEPRESSION. RELATEDLY, AI ADULTS ALSO HAVE HIGH RATES OF SUBSTANCE MISUSE COMPARED TO OTHER RACIAL/ETHNIC GROUPS. THESE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS BECOME EXACERBATED AS A POPULATION AGES, SINCE STRESS, DEPRESSION AND SUBSTANCE USE HAVE BEEN LINKED TO COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT LATER IN LIFE. FORTUNATELY, IMPROVEMENTS TO HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQOL) AND COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS MAY AMELIORATE THESE NEGATIVE IMPACTS, ALTHOUGH NONE OF THESE ASSOCIATIONS HAVE BEEN FULLY EVALUATED IN AI ADULTS. AS IMPAIRED COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE PRECEDES DEVELOPMENT OF ADRD, WE WILL DETERMINE RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS OF COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN AI ADULTS TO INFORM PREVENTION STRATEGIES TO POTENTIALLY CIRCUMVENT LATER DEVELOPMENT OF ADRD. LONGITUDINAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL RISK FACTORS AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT NEED TO BE DIRECTLY EVALUATED TO EXAMINE THE TEMPORAL SEQUENCE OF CLINICAL CHANGES THAT OCCUR WITH AGING. ADDITIONALLY, RESEARCH TESTING THE LONGITUDINAL RELATIONSHIP WITH COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE AND DEMENTIA IN AI ADULTS IS MISSING. ESTABLISHED, LONGITUDINAL COHORT STUDIES OFFER OPPORTUNITY TO ASSESS MODIFIABLE RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS IN AGING ADULTS, WITH MULTIPLE DATA COLLECTIONS. GIVEN THESE GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE, OUR OBJECTIVES ARE TO TEST THE LONGITUDINAL RELATIONSHIP AMONG STRESS, DEPRESSION, AND SUBSTANCE USE (ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, PRESCRIPTION OPIOIDS) WITH COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN AI ADULTS, AND WHETHER HRQOL AND COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS MODERATE THESE RELATIONSHIPS. OUR CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS IS THAT HIGHER STRESS RESULTS IN HIGHER DEPRESSION, MORE SUBSTANCE USE AND ESPECIALLY MISUSE, AND THAT ALL THREE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER COGNITIVE SCORES, WHEREAS BETTER HRQOL AND BETTER COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS MODERATE THESE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS. USING THE PSYCHOMETRICALLY-ROBUST NIH TOOLBOX, WE WILL ALSO TEST AND DEVELOP NORMATIVE STANDARDS FOR THE AI COMMUNITY, MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR THE FIRST TIME TO DIRECTLY COMPARE AI COGNITIVE DATA WITH NON-HISPANIC WHITE, ASIAN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN, AND HISPANIC ADULTS. OUR PROPOSED STUDY IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE STRONG HEART STUDY, A 30-YEAR COHORT OF AGING AI ADULTS. WE PROPOSE TO COLLECT THESE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE DATA IN A FOLLOW-UP EXAMINATION (N=3,000). DEFINING ASSOCIATIONS AMONG STRESS, DEPRESSION, SUBSTANCE MISUSE, HRQOL, AND COMMUNITY; AND DEFINING COGNITIVE STANDARDS IN A COMMONLY USED, ESTABLISHED PLATFORM WILL INFORM FUTURE PUBLIC HEALTH PREVENTION AND TREATMENT STRATEGIES FOR THIS UNDERSERVED, OVERBURDENED POPULATION.