Psychological risk factors, quality of life, community, and brain aging in American Indians: The Strong Heart Study

Status: Current

American Indian adults have a high burden of psychological risk factors and related sequelae, but little is known about their relation to Alzheimer’s disease. This project aims to collect psychological risk features as well as cognitive test performance data in 3,000 aging American Indian adults, in order to: test longitudinal relationships among stress, depression, substance use, quality of life, community connectedness, and cognition, and also to establish the first normative psychometric standards specific to American Indian adults using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. 

Principal Investigator(s)

• Astrid Suchy-Dicey, PhD
• Celestina Barbosa-Leiker, PhD

Team Member(s)

• Kyra Oziel
  Research Coordinator
• Keegan Roberts
  Research Study Assistant
• Jolie Green
  Research Study Assistant

Heath Research Initiatives

• American Indian and Alaska Native

Focus Areas

• Alzheimer's disease
• Cognition
• NIH toolbox