Funding Source: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging (R01 AG 060109–01S1, Supplement)
Principal Investigator: Jason Fletcher
Co-Investigators: Michal Engelman, Qiongshi Lu, Alberto Palloni
Summary
This project aims to increase understanding of the impacts of early life geographic context on the levels of and disparities in old age cognitive health and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) diagnosis and mortality by using newly available data on millions of individuals linked to their place of birth over the 20th century in the US and UK. It also explores how early contextual disadvantages and life course mobility affect these old-age health outcomes. We plan to create an “Atlas of Birth Place Impacts on AD/ADRD Outcomes” which will allow us to uncover mechanisms linking the relationship between place of birth and later health by focusing on mobility and early exposures. Together, these aims will allow a paradigm shift in how we understand old age health processes by integrating life course and spatial analysis into large-scale analyses of the patterns and mechanisms of old age cognitive health and AD/ADRD diagnosis and mortality outcomes.