Document text
Principal Investigator: Eric Grodsky
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $25,903,976
Funding agency: National Institute on Aging
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Education is among the most important determinants of later-life cognitive functioning and biological markers of
AD/ADRD risk. However, we know very little about how, why, or for whom education matters for these cognitive
outcomes. This makes it difficult to design effective early life preventative interventions. To know how and why
education matters for later-life cognitive functioning and biological markers of AD/ADRD risk, we need high
quality prospective studies that follow diverse young people through schools and across adulthood; that measure
key and modifiable educational contexts, opportunities, and outcomes; that observe midlife socioeconomic
attainments; and that assess cognitive functioning and biological markers of AD/ADRD risk in late life. To date,
no such studies exist.
This project brings together an established and interdisciplinary team of neurologists, neuropsychologists,
sociologists, education scientists, survey methodologists, biostatisticians, and neuroimaging experts who will re-
contact surviving members the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72;
N=14,489). NLS-72 is a nationally representative and highly diverse random sample of Americans first
interviewed as high school seniors in 1972. Following protocols developed and successfully deployed in the High
School and Beyond (HSB) cohort in 2014-2015 and 2021, the team will conduct in-home interviews that include
extensive cognitive assessments and anthropometric measures; in-home visits to gather whole blood; and (for
500 people near one of five regional centers) neuroimaging via harmonized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The resulting data—which will be securely released to the wider scientific community during the project period—
will be used to conduct transformative analyses of the effects of educational contexts, opportunities, and
outcomes on risk of AD/ADRD as observed in cognitive assessments, blood-based markers of neuropathology,
and neuroimaging. The project has four aims: (Aim 1) To estimate the extent to which education shapes
biological, neurocognitive, and behavioral markers of AD/ADRD risk at age 70; (Aim 2) To estimate the extent to
which adult socioeconomic attainments mediate the effects of education on vascular health, pace of biological
aging, and cognitive functioning at age 70; (Aim 3) To estimate the extent to which racial and ethnic differences
in the quality of and returns to education account for disparities in markers of AD/ADRD risk; and (Aim 4) To
securely disseminate newly collected NLS-72 data for wide use by the research community. The analyses made
possible by the newly collected data will transform our understanding of how and why education and other early
life factors impact AD/ADRD risk and resilience.
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function><cognitive loss><cognitive reserve><cognitive testing><cohort><college><collegiate><data interpretation><data storage site><design><designing><differences due to race><differences in race><differs by race><differs in race><disparities in race><disparity due to race><disparity in ethnic><economic outcome><ethnic based disparity><ethnic difference><ethnic disadvantage><ethnic disparity><ethnic inequality><ethnic inequity><ethnicity difference><ethnicity disparity><experience><field based data><field learning><field study><field test><gene biomarker><gene expression biomarker><gene marker><gene signature biomarker><genetic biomarker><genomic data><genomic data-set><genomic dataset><high school><high school senior><home visit><homes><improved><inequality due to race><inequity due to race><instructional intervention><intervention for prevention><intracranial vascular dysfunction><juvenile><juvenile human><late life><life course><long-term study><longitudinal outcome studies><longterm study><member><mid life><mid-life><middle age><middle aged><midlife><neural degeneration><neural imaging><neuro-imaging><neurodegeneration><neurodegenerative><neuroimaging><neurological degeneration><neurological imaging><neuronal degeneration><neuropathologic><neuropathological><neuropathology><pace of aging><pace of biological aging><pathway><prevention intervention><preventional intervention strategy><preventive intervention><primary degenerative dementia><prospective><race based differences><race based disparity><race based inequality><race based inequity><race differences><race disparity><race related differences><race related disparity><race related inequality><race related inequity><racial><racial background><racial difference><racial disparity><racial inequality><racial inequity><racial origin><racially different><racially unequal><rate of aging><rate of biological aging><resilience><resilient><response><risk predictor><risk predictors><senile dementia of the Alzheimer type><sex><social role><socio-economic><socio-economically><socioeconomically><socioeconomics><sociologist><speed of aging><speed of the aging><statistics><theories><twelfth grade><vascular>