Health Disparities in Alzheimers and Related Diseases

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This application from Florida International University (FIU) and Emory University requests support for a four-year research conference series to address critical scientific issues associated with reducing Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) inequities among ethnic minorities in the United States. The conference series we propose rests on interdisciplinary research using a population disease framework, with specific attention to ethnic groups and sex differences in pathways to neurodegenerative diseases. Genetics and family/personal health histories are non-modifiable factors, and modifiable factors include a wide range of lifespan environmental exposures and lifestyle factors. The conference series focuses on increasing understanding about how genetic factors are operating in concert with environmental exposures, family and personal health histories, and lifestyle factors to produce interactions that enhance or mitigate risk of ADRD within and between ethnic groups, specifically among African Americans, Latinos, and non-Latino Whites. These critical issues remain largely overlooked and are fundamental for increasing knowledge for disease modification using precision medicine and for pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic intervention development in under-represented populations in AD clinical trials. The 4 related specific aims of the series are: 1. To understand how the current evidence examines specific genes, individually or in combination, are differentially distributed by ethnicity and sex, and are associated with higher risk or protection against LOAD between and among higher risk ethnic groups. 2. To describe how genetic risk may be modulated by factors such as epigenetics, age, sex, environmental exposures, lifestyle/diet, family and personal health histories, social, and demographic factors between and within ethnic groups and women at disproportionate risk for LOAD. 3. To examine current knowledge about how comorbidities such as vascular diseases, diabetes, and mental health moderate or mediate the increase risk of ADRD in these under-represented populations. 4. To explore underlying theory, new findings, and innovative observation, instrument development and calibration for respondent or patient assessment, and measurement/analytic strategies to improve our understanding of the gene x environment interactions influencing ADRD risk and how methods may be modified or adapted for use in specific research applications with higher risk minority populations and women.