School Quality and Racial Disparities in Alzheimer's Disease in Project Talent

美国研究所（AIR）将为学校质量和种族问题提供工作人员。 阿尔茨海默病在人才项目研究中的差异，并将协助詹妮弗·曼利博士（PI， 哥伦比亚大学）在创建共享数据资源和支持 这个研究项目。 早期生活中的社会经济逆境是大脑健康不良的危险因素， 功能和脑血管疾病-在以后的生活中，但有些人是有弹性的， 尽管面临着早期生活的逆境，但结果好于预期。的机制 韧性，以及早期生活逆境和晚年大脑健康之间的因果关系， 不清楚，但教育经历很可能是关键。该项目将重点关注 死亡率，认知功能和心血管健康状况，增加风险， 脑血管疾病，所有与生命早期社会经济 逆境，并将评估教育经验在潜在促进 对早期生活逆境的适应力。学校质量评估中的一个中心研究问题 对大脑健康的长期影响是， 上高质量学校的好处或教育 影响以后的健康。 该研究将包括约9000名参与者，目前年龄在69-74岁之间，以评估认知能力， 健康和其他方面的恢复力。本研究的其他创新包括： 认知能力成套测量与1960年的几项原始测量相协调， 允许直接测量1960年至2017年期间多种认知能力的变化;使用 自适应测试，以减少参与者的负担;通过邮寄平板电脑进行评估， 促进记忆和视觉空间能力的测量。这项研究有很多优点， 包括其样本量、前瞻性设计、高质量的多项认知测量 青少年和老年人的能力，教育质量评估， 经验，职业和休闲活动的认知复杂性，所有这些都在其背景下， 独特的设计，为解决因果假设提供了前所未有的机会。

The American Institutes for Research (AIR) will provide staff for the School Quality and Racial Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease in Project Talent study and will assist Dr. Jennifer Manly (PI, Columbia University) in activities to create shared data resources and to support all aspects of this research project. Socioeconomic adversity in early life is a risk factor for poor brain health—impaired cognitive function and cerebrovascular disease—in later life, but some individuals are resilient, achieving better-than-expected outcomes despite facing early life adversity. The mechanisms of resilience, as well as the causal pathways between early life adversity and later life brain health, are unclear, but educational experiences are very likely critical. This project will focus on mortality, cognitive function, and cardiovascular health conditions that increase risk for cerebrovascular disease, all outcomes that have been linked to early life socioeconomic adversity, and will evaluate the role of educational experiences in potentially promoting resilience to early life adversity. A central research question in our evaluation of school quality and long term impacts on brain health is whether there are racial/ethnic differences in the benefits of attending higher quality schools or the mechanisms though which education influences later health. The study will include ~9000 participants, currently aged 69-74, to assess cognitive abilities, health, and other aspects of resilience. Other innovations of this study include: a contemporary battery of cognitive abilities measures harmonized with several of the original 1960 measures, allowing direct measurement of change across 1960 to 2017 on multiple cognitive abilities; use of adaptive testing to reduce participant burden; and assessment via mailed tablet computers to facilitate measurement of memory and visuospatial abilities. This study has many advantages, including its sample size, prospective design, high quality measurement of multiple cognitive abilities in adolescence and older adulthood, assessment of educational quality and experiences, cognitive complexity of occupational and leisure activities, all in the context of its unique design that provides an unprecedented opportunity to address causal hypotheses.