EXPANDING MHAS RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE WITH HISTORICAL CLIMATE AND LIFETIME WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES INFLUENCING INEQUITIES IN AD/ADRD

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This project will merge longitudinal the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) data with that on climate and classify workplace environment exposures. This will yield a dataset offering new insights on how climate and workplace environment affects trajectories for Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (AD/ADRD). Because the MHAS has been collected longer than any other similar survey in the developing world, the resulting data set will help generate important findings on the growing proportion of persons in low- and middle-income countries living with AD/ADRD. The project has two specific aims. Its first aim is to expand the ability of the MHAS to support research on exposome and its relation to AD/ADRD with lifetime climate and occupational exposures. We will accomplish this by linking MHAS data to climatological data (monthly temperature and pluvial precipitation data since 1952 by municipality and state), data on hurricanes (including their impact), data on the effects of climate change (state-level data on soil erosion, forest fires, and natural disasters), data on national and state policy changes regarding laws and regulations on toxic emissions and climate change, and by classifying respondents’ lifetime and current jobs by workplace environmental exposure. Its second aim is to foster research on the influence of environmental exposures, early life disadvantages, and lifetime occupation on AD/ADRD health disparities. We will do this by documenting and disseminating the new data sources with MHAS linkages on the MHAS website platform in English and Spanish. The CeASES ADRD website and Dissemination Core will help outreach a broader audience and increase the visibility of these new products. We will also illustrate how to use the new variables in assessing determinants of cognitive function and AD/ADRD. These new products will also help researchers leverage recent MHAS questions on housing proximity to toxic or noisy environments as well as information from a hair biomarker collected in 2018 on exposures to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and titanium. The new linked data files will help promote new research on exposome among understudied vulnerable older adults.