Tuesday, July 1, 2025 7/1/2025

Socioeconomic and Cardiovascular Sources of Cross-National Variation in Cognitive Health Among Older Adults

Award Number: R01AG070953
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2026

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Socioeconomic and Cardiovascular Sources of Cross-National Variation in Cognitive Health Among Older Adults - PROJECT SUMMARY Although nearly 75% of global Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) cases will occur in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by 2050, little ADRD research includes data from these regions. This is a major missed opportunity to identify individual-level and contextual influences on later-life cognitive function. Evidence from high-income countries suggests ADRD is partly attributable to socioeconomic factors, such as education, and cardiovascular factors, such as hypertension. Whether these same factors contribute to cognitive health outcomes to a similar degree in LMICs with rapidly aging populations is unknown. Comparative research across LMICs and high-income countries could help to unlock important drivers of ADRD and identify key differences between countries that could be leveraged for prevention strategies to reduce the global ADRD burden. The NIA-funded Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) was recently introduced into the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and its International Partner Studies (IPS) as a comparable cross-national cognitive assessment. Critically, no work has demonstrated that HCAP data from the various countries are in fact directly comparable. Any observation of country-level differences may thus be an unknown mixture of actual differences in the distribution of cognitive function and bias attributable to incommensurate measurement. Our overarching goal is to estimate the contributions of key socioeconomic and cardiovascular ADRD risk factors to later-life cognitive function between individuals and between countries in the US HRS and IPS in South Africa, Mexico, India, and England. We have assembled HCAP and main HRS/IPS survey data on N=10,642 older adults from these five countries. To accomplish our goal, we aim to: 1) statistically harmonize HCAP measures across HRS/IPS countries using modern psychometrics to enable us to identify and address any differential item functioning of HCAP measures across countries in order to facilitate valid cross-national comparisons; 2) investigate and quantify the contributions of life course socioeconomic factors to variation in later-life cognitive function between individuals and between countries; and, 3) investigate and quantify the contributions of cardiovascular factors to variation in later-life cognitive function between individuals and between countries. Key innovations are: 1) adaptation of sophisticated psychometric methods to harmonize HCAP data across economically, socially, and culturally diverse country contexts; 2) inclusion of cross-national data to diversify and expand representation of global populations in the ADRD evidence base; and, 3) use of multi-level models to partition variance in later-life cognitive function to differences between individuals and differences between countries. We will make our harmonized data available through the established Gateway to Global Aging Data website. Our results will set the stage to identify intervention targets for high-risk individuals as well as whole populations, with the ultimate goal of preventing and/or delaying the onset of ADRD from a global perspective.


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 = $482,124 )
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	000	5	3/4/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$442,767
2025	2025	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	001	5	6/13/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$39,357
														Subtotal = $482,124

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $1,205,728 )
2024	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	1109 GEDDES AVE, SUITE 3300	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	000	4	1/25/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,085,156
2024	2024	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	1109 GEDDES AVE, SUITE 3300	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	001	4	7/1/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$120,572
														Subtotal = $1,205,728

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $1,235,744 )
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON STREET	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	000	3	2/2/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$491,964
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON STREET	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	002	3	4/7/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$325,264
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON STREET	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	001	3	3/14/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$418,516
														Subtotal = $1,235,744

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $484,621 )
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON ST	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	001	2	5/10/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$48,464
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON ST	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	000	2	3/7/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$436,157
														Subtotal = $484,621

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $547,933 )
2021	2021	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	503 THOMPSON ST	ANN ARBOR	MI	48109	WASHTENAW	USA	Aging Research	000	1	3/29/2021	NEW	$547,933
														Subtotal = $547,933

Grand Total All Awards = $3,956,150

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Socioeconomic and Cardiovascular Sources of Cross-National Variation in Cognitive Health Among Older Adults

Award Number: R01AG070953

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

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

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2026

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