Health Equity: Identify risk factors across diverse populations

AD-Related Dementias Focus

Identify life course and multi-level mechanisms of and pathways to AD/ADRD inequities and use the discoveries to reduce these inequities.

2027 PAR-15-349: Health Disparities and Alzheimer’s Disease (R01) PAR-15-350: Emerging Directions for Addressing Health Disparities in Alzheimer's Disease (R03) RFA-NS-19-012: Post-Stroke Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID) in the United States Including in Health Disparities Populations (U19) RFA-NS-20-013: White Matter Disease Etiology of Dementia in the U.S. Including in Health Disparities Populations NOT-AG-21-033: Health Disparities and Alzheimer's Disease NOT-NS-21-047: Administrative Supplements to Promote Diversity for NINDS Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Awardees PAR-22-221: AD/ADRD, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Social Determinants of Health Ancillary Studies of Existing Longitudinal Cohorts (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) RFA-AG-23-020: Building Infrastructure for Precision Medicine Research on Minority Health and Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) (UH2/UH3 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) RFA-NS-24-024: Role of Environmental Stress in the Health Inequities of Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) PAR-24-147: Mechanistic Investigations into ADRD Multiple Etiology Dementias (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 1.I In Progress Assess epidemiology and mechanistic pathways of disparities in health burden of AD/ADRD. 2016 ADRD Summit: Health Disparities (HD) Focus Area 1: Treatment and Prevention Strategies, Recommendation 1 (PDF, 901K) 2019 ADRD Summit: Health Disparities (HD) Focus Area 2: Resolve AD/ADRD Health Disparities by Discovering Culturally Appropriate Pathways to Effective Prevention and Treatments, Recommendation 2 2022 ADRD Summit: Health Equity (HE) in AD/ADRD, Milestone 7 News: Diet rich in fried and processed foods linked to increased hypertension in black Americans Workshop: Gaps and Opportunities for Real-World Data: Stakeholder Workshop Workshop: The Future of Population-Based Studies in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Research: Setting Future Scientific Priorities Workshop: Optimizing Older Adult Care through the Use of Electronic Health Records Highlight: Aging in disadvantaged neighborhoods may worsen age-related cognitive problems, especially among Mexican Americans Highlight: Higher cognitive ability in early life linked to lower risk of dementia Highlight: Neighborhood disadvantage linked to dementia risk in New Zealand population Population Studies and Precision Medicine VCID and Stroke in a Bi-racial National Cohort (REGARDS) Health Disparities and Alzheimer’s Disease (R01) Emerging Directions for Addressing Health Disparities in Alzheimer's Disease (R03) Post-Stroke Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID) in the United States Including in Health Disparities Populations (U19) Diverse VCID: White Matter Lesion Etiology of Dementia in Diverse Populations Determinants of Incident Stroke Cognitive Outcomes and Vascular Effects on Recovery (DISCOVERY) 24-hour Activity Cycles to Optimize Cognitive Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease in African Americans: The Jackson Heart Study Select projects funded in FY21 Select projects funded in FY22 Mind Your Risks

  • One longitudinal community-based cohort study of incident cognitive impairment and dementia in populations that experience heath disparities.
  • Two studies on how the impact of multi-level AD/ADRD risk factors differs across diverse populations.
  • At least one clinical trial to develop and implement real-world approaches, in primary care to decrease known multi-level risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia over the life course in diverse populations.

Summary of Key Accomplishments

Recent NIH-funded research studies indicate that one of the highest impact intervention targets for population-level dementia risk, and especially for dementia risk in Black, Hispanic, and rural populations, is elevated mid-life blood pressure (see citation below). NIH continues to study risk factors for dementia and cognitive impairment in several studies, including the VCID and Stroke in a Bi-racial National Cohort (REGARDS) study, which follows more than 6000 participants aged 75+ and is ideal to provide insights about racial and geographic disparities in dementia and stroke risk as well as the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC), is designed to investigate the causes of atherosclerosis and its clinical outcomes including dementia, and variation in cardiovascular risk factors, medical care, and disease by race, gender, location, and date.

Citation: Levine DA, et al. Association Between Blood Pressure and Later-Life Cognition Among Black and White Individuals. JAMA Neurol. 2020 Jul 1;77(7):810-819.

The key accomplishments summary is current as of July 2022.