Structural inequality in employment as a pathway for gender disparities in ADRD

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary Women are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) later in life. The gender disparity can be partially explained by sex-related biological differences and women's longer life expectancy. The remaining portion is ascribed to structural inequalities. Building on prior research, I hypothesize that women's unequal access to employment has contributed to their cognitive disadvantage by restricting their ability to cognitive enrichment through the life course and other valuable employment-related resources. The proposed Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) will give me protected time and resources to undertake additional training in social determinants of ADRD, implementing quasi-experimental analytic methods using life course data, and survey cognitive health assessment. I will also bolster my understanding of the physiological underpinnings of ADRD to be able to pursue an interdisciplinary research agenda. Supported by a team of highly accomplished mentors in neuroscience, psychology, gerontology, epidemiology, and population health, I will carry out innovative and rigorous quasi-experimental studies that approach the question of women's labor force disadvantage implications for cognitive disparities from a life course perspective. First, I will use the Irish TILDA cohort to examine the effects of married women's labor force exclusion on their cognitive outcomes later in life. Second, I will use UK's ELSA data to study the effects of the introduction of paid and protected maternity leave on British women's cognitive outcomes later in life. Finally, I will use American HRS data to evaluate the impact of women's earlier retirement on their cognitive outcomes later in life. The datasets selected combine high-quality social, cognitive, and health data and rich life course histories. The skills and expertise I will gain will put me in a strong position to make major contributions to our understanding of structural determinants of disparities in cognitive health, become an independent NIH-funded researcher, and lay the foundation of my new research program in employment, policy, and cognitive disparities.