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AD-Related Dementias Focus
Establish research infrastructure enabling clinical, epidemiological, and basic research studies of COVID-19 impact on AD/ADRD risk and outcomes, prioritizing disproportionally affected populations and clinical trials readiness.
2028 NOT-AG-21-016: Neurological and Neurocognitive Sequelae from SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 in Aging and Age-Related Neurodegeneration 4.AA In Progress Impact of COVID-19 on AD/ADRD: Building research infrastructure DN 2022 ADRD Summit: Multiple Etiology Dementias (MED) Special Topic: Impact of COVID-19 on AD/ADRD Risk and Outcomes Milestone 1, Priority 1 Workshop: Gaps and Opportunities for Real-World Data: Stakeholder Workshop Translational Tools, Infrastructure, and Capabilities Projects funded in FY22
- At least one study to establish new or leverage existing clinical cohorts for longitudinal prospective studies to examine the impact of COVID-19 on AD/ADRD risk and outcomes.
- Leverage existing resources to ensure brain, other biological samples, and standardized AD/ADRD clinical data from persons infected with SARS-CoV-2, including in populations that are disproportionally impacted, are accessible for AD/ADRD research.
Summary of Key Accomplishments
In 2024, NIA funded the Effects of COVID-19 on the Well-Being, Cognition, and Mortality of Persons Living with Dementia (1R01AG079230-01A1). In this project, investigators are leveraging data from the long-running Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to probe the effects of the pandemic on the cognitive status of the older U.S. population and how the pandemic and attendant public health and social measures affected mortality and well- being among persons living with dementia and the older population in general. The project will use data on a large nationally representative sample and develop an enhanced model of cognitive status to estimate changes in ADRD trends before and following the pandemic in the population and in subpopulations. These results will provide insights into the distribution of the medium- and longer-term burden of the pandemic on the older population and will aid with resource and policy planning.
The key accomplishments summary is current as of September 2025.