Center for AD/ADRD Population Aging and Social Studies (CAPAS) - Aging populations are one of the largest demographics in the country, growing faster than any other age groups. Moreover, many groups have aging experiences that are highly heterogeneous, structured by socioeconomic and cultural orientations, and other life course exposures that will shift continuously. While some groups have longer life expectancies than others, their earlier onset of many age-related chronic diseases, including Alzheimer's Diseases and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD), results in longer lives with cognitive impairment and a higher caregiving burden. Yet, many of the socioeconomic and biosocial factors and pathways behind this deterioration are unknown and need exploration. Critical barriers to advancing the understanding of AD/ADRD include: lack of integrated expertise on social, neuropsychological, and biological processes; relative shortage of trained investigators with interest in differences in ADRD using a population aging, social determinants of health perspective; little knowledge of and difficulty in accessing data sources that support population based, life course approaches to ADRD; and limited dissemination of research related to AD/ADRD among scientific and lay communities, regulatory agencies, and health promoters. To narrow these gaps, The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and the University of Texas in San Antonio bring together multidisciplinary groups of experts and research networks in demography, sociology, AD/ADRD epidemiology, neuropsychology, population economics, public health differences, and experience conducting longitudinal studies for AD/ADRD research and overall aging to form the new San Antonio Center for AD/ADRD Population Aging and Social Studies (CAPAS). The themes of the 6-year program emphasize the unique attributes of the life course of populations in the United States and abroad that yield differences in protective and risk factors for AD/ADRD in old age. The research foci include resilience, caregiving, social networks support, neighborhood contexts, environmental and occupational exposures, relocation history, and cross-national networks, among others. The center has the following specific aims: 1) To support and accelerate cutting-edge social science, population-based ADRD-related aging research through a program of pilot projects for emerging scholars, and pilot projects for established investigators to integrate innovations to their ongoing research. 2) To develop a larger pipeline of ADRD population aging research scholars with strong integrated socio-neuropsychological and/or biosocial expertise through a program of targeted mentoring and professional networking. 3) To improve the dissemination of population-based data to conduct research on ADRD among the scientific community, and a program of dedicated bilingual communications to enhance awareness of ADRD research among lay communities. The center is organized into three cores: Administrative and Research Support core, Development (pilots) core, and Communication & Dissemination core.
