University of Kentucky researchers are part of a nationwide effort examining how the places people live, work and spend their lives may influence their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The Neighborhoods Study, led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, received a second round of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with a $30.9 million award supporting the next phase of the research.
The University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is one of 24 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers across the country participating in the study, which explores connections between Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and social and environmental factors experienced throughout a person’s lifetime.
Erin Abner, Ph.D., professor in the UK College of Public Health and researcher with the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, serves as the UK site principal investigator for The Neighborhoods Study.
“Over the course of a lifetime, where we live exerts a powerful influence over our brain health. Where we live plays a role in determining where we attend school, where we work, what kinds of foods we eat and the quality of the water we drink, the quality of the air we breathe, what kind of healthcare professionals we can see, whether we experience disasters, and how likely we are to die early or survive into old age,” said Abner.
Researchers refer to the collection of social and environmental factors people experience throughout their lives as the “social exposome.” Those factors can include poverty, education, housing, employment and exposure to environmental toxins.
The Neighborhoods Study is the largest study in the world connecting the social exposome with brain tissue and biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. By combining information about where people have lived and worked with biological data, researchers hope to better understand how lifetime exposures may affect brain health and dementia risk.
With the renewed funding, researchers will expand that work to assess exposure to lead-contaminated infrastructure, job-related toxins experienced throughout a person’s lifetime and heavy metals found in brain tissue. The goal is to better understand why certain populations may be particularly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
“The Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Sanders-Brown is renowned for its brain autopsy program. Our research volunteers often participate for decades, and then generously donate their brains to us. The years of dedication of our participants combined
with the high-quality neuropathology data we obtain from autopsy, merged with the lifetime residential histories from The Neighborhoods Study, provide an unparalleled resource for asking and answering questions about how our lived environment affects the brain,” said Abner.
The latest phase builds on research that began in 2021. Findings from the first phase have helped researchers better understand the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and brain health.
The study has supported continued development of the Area Deprivation Index, or ADI, a tool used to characterize neighborhood disadvantage and inform health interventions and policies. Researchers have also demonstrated associations between greater neighborhood disadvantage and increased odds of neurodegeneration, biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and postmortem evidence of dementia-related brain changes.
Researchers have additionally linked living in neighborhoods with high levels of disadvantage across a person’s lifetime with increased risk of neurodegeneration and brain disease.
By examining these connections on a national scale, researchers ultimately hope the work can inform more precise approaches to dementia prevention — including strategies tailored to populations whose lifetime environmental and social exposures may put them at greater risk.
The Neighborhoods Study is the largest research effort of its kind linking brain tissue with lifelong exposures to more fully examine the mechanisms through which the social exposome may influence Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia risk and outcomes.
About the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging
The University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has been conducting research on aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias for more than four decades. The center is home to one of the nation’s NIH-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers, bringing together researchers and clinicians from across disciplines to advance understanding of healthy brain aging, improve diagnosis and treatment, and work toward prevention and cures for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG070883. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.