Racial/Ethnic Disparities in ADRD Risk: The Impact of Social Relations-Administrative Supplement for Increased Costs

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

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Abstract

Increased Costs Supplement- Racial/Ethnic Disparities in ADRD Risk: The Impact of Social Relations This application for a NIA Administrative Supplement is requested to address the unprecedented cost increases arising from the two-year delay that followed the COVID- 19 mandatory face-to-face data collection shutdown. We note that there has been no change in the original funded scope of the project Racial/Ethnic Disparities in ADRD Risk: The Impact of Social Relations (R01AG057510). Despite the delay, no intervening research has reduced the importance or uniqueness of the proposed study, which provides an unprecedented opportunity to advance the scientific study of the ways in which cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of social relations link with disparities in ADRD risk. The specific aims are to: 1) Examine secular trends in social relations and health by race/ethnicity in two adult lifespan regionally representative cohorts; 2) Identify aspects of social relations that have the greatest effects on ADRD risk among blacks, whites and Arab Americans in mid- and late- life; 3) Identify longitudinal associations between social relations across the life course and ADRD risk among blacks and whites. This supplement is submitted to preserve the integrity of the originally approved objectives, purpose and expected overall impact of the study. The two-year COVID delay hit this pioneering study especially hard and has been financially devastating. We capitalize on an existing longitudinal cohort study of detailed social relations over ~30 years in a diverse lifespan sample (i.e., from age 8 to 93 in Wave 1). Adding cognitive and genetic measures, as well as extending racial/ethnic group comparisons to include Arab Americans in a new regionally representative sample (age 35+) provides a novel opportunity to study modifiable factors in midlife for ADRD risk. Findings will provide key information to develop strategies using the influential resource of social relations to reduce disparities. Further, the proposed study sets the stage for a newly representative longitudinal study of racial/ethnic disparities in ADRD risk.