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The Neighborhoods Study: Contextual Disadvantage and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD)

Award Number: R01AG070883
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/01/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2026

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The Neighborhoods Study: Contextual Disadvantage and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) - Dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) disproportionately impacts racial/ethnic minorities and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Development of effective interventions require mechanistic understanding of distal fundamental forces, including socioeconomic context (i.e. “neighborhood disadvantage” or the social determinants of health of a given area), that put people at “risk for [more proximal] risks” such as individual-level income, education, health behaviors and comorbidity. Prior research supports that contextual disadvantage is modifiable and interacts with biological processes to produce disease, yet little is known of its impact on ADRD. Towards this, we created validated quantifications of neighborhood disadvantage for the full US. This Area Deprivation Index (ADI) incorporates poverty, education, housing and employment indicators; predicts disparity-related health outcomes; and is freely shared through our public platform (the Neighborhood Atlas). We have validated survey and public data-based residential history tracing methodologies that establish dosage and timing of neighborhood disadvantage exposure across a life-course for both living and deceased persons. We have demonstrated that even after adjustment for individual risk factors, neighborhood disadvantage is strongly associated with cognitive function, neurodegeneration shown on MRI, and post-mortem AD plaque neuropathology. However, our current sample is lacking in geographic diversity and is of insufficient size to conduct a more robust multi-factor phenotypic risk assessment of social-biological interactions and their mechanisms; a necessary foundation towards developing new therapeutic intervention. This proposal employs collaboration with 22 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) and their existing cognitive, neuroimaging and neuropathology data. We take on the substantial work to create detailed residential histories for each ADRC subject (N~9,234 living, N~10,469 brain bank) to establish a dosage and timing of neighborhood disadvantage exposure across each life-course. Hypothesis: Larger and earlier exposures to neighborhood disadvantage will predict lower cognitive function, faster cognitive decline and greater disease burden including AD neuropathology among the targeted sample. Aim 1: Determine the impact of the cumulative dose and timing of neighborhood disadvantage exposure (indexed by ADI), on cognitive function and change over time; Aim 2: on AD-specific markers indexed by neuroimaging (amyloid and tau PET) and the secondary outcome of volumetric MRI; and Aim 3: on neuropathologic tissue features and diagnosis. Aim 4: Using existing ADRC data and newly collected survey data, define the extent to which individual race/ethnicity, age, sex, income, education, comorbidity and health-behaviors mediate these relationships. The proposed project, if funded, will be the largest study of its kind on social determinants of health in the context of AD. Successful completion will result in the development of a novel collaborative infrastructure of contextual exposure for future social-biological phenotypic evaluation, providing a potential pathway to new therapeutics, and directly responsive to the NIA mission.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $5,172,719 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	001	5	6/18/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$422,262
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	000	5	3/12/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$4,750,457
														Subtotal = $5,172,719

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $5,847,113 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	000	4	3/15/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$5,262,402
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	001	4	7/3/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$584,711
														Subtotal = $5,847,113

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $9,848,919 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	001	3	4/6/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$3,494,004
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	000	3	3/27/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$6,354,915
														Subtotal = $9,848,919

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $9,759,567 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	002	2	9/5/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$3,451,498
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	001	2	6/13/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$630,808
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	000	2	2/28/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$5,677,261
														Subtotal = $9,759,567

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $4,760,115 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6401	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	002	1	3/26/2021	NEW	$26,624
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6401	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	000	1	3/1/2021	NEW	$4,733,491
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6401	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Aging Research	001	1	3/11/2021	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $4,760,115

Grand Total All Awards = $35,388,433

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The Neighborhoods Study: Contextual Disadvantage and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD)

Award Number: R01AG070883

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/01/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2026

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