Incident Vascular Brain Injury, Probable Alzheimer’s Disease, and Cognitive Change in Elderly American Indians (Astrid’s K01)

Status: Ended

American Indian people bear a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular risk factors, which may cause damage to the brain and result in cognitive impairment. However, little is known about other causes of cognitive impairment and dementia in this group. We will establish the frequency, risk factors, and outcomes related to new onset of these conditions among American Indian people residing in 3 regions of the United States. This K01 will report the first estimates of prevalent and incident Alzheimer’s disease; establish the first descriptive estimates of cognitive performance and cognitive impairment; evaluate normative and diagnostic standards for standard cognitive tests; and conduct machine learning to empirically identify neuroimaging and biomarker profiles that uniquely characterize cognitive status–in a large, population based cohort of American Indian people. This is the first study to collect and report cognition data in a large, longitudinal population-based study of American Indian people.

Principal Investigator(s)

• Astrid Suchy-Dicey, PhD

Heath Research Initiatives

• American Indian and Alaska Native

Focus Areas

• Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
• American Indian and Alaska Native