A nationwide study led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health that explores the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease, environmental factors and lifetime experiences has been awarded a second round of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Neighborhoods Study has been selected for a $30.9 million funding award, making it the third largest NIH grant currently held by UW–Madison.
Led by Amy Kind, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and associate dean for social health sciences and programs, The Neighborhoods Study involves 24 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers across the country that collaborate to explore the relationship between social and environmental factors such as poverty, education, housing, employment and toxins — also known as the social exposome — and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The study is also the largest in the world to connect social exposome with brain tissues and their disease biomarkers.
“We are proud to keep UW–Madison and Wisconsin at the cutting edge of brain health science with The Neighborhoods Study. The renewal of the study will allow us to deepen our understanding of the relationship between ADRD and lifelong exposure to factors such as lead-laced infrastructure, occupational toxins and exposure to heavy metals, important in our relentless march towards better prevention and cure of this devastating disease,” said Kind, who also directs the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) at UW–Madison.
With renewed funding, The Neighborhoods Study will assess lead-contaminated infrastructure exposure, job-related toxin exposures that people experience throughout their lifetimes, and heavy metals in brain tissue to better understand what makes certain populations especially vulnerable to ADRD.
As its work continues, researchers hope that The Neighborhoods Study will enable prevention measures that are precisely tailored to populations at highest risk based on exposures. The work is focused on risk mitigation and new interventions in ADRD, advancing knowledge of the relationship between exposome and dementia to improve health for all.
Initiated in 2021, the first phase of research conducted by The Neighborhoods Study has already supported the continued development of CHDR’s Area Deprivation Index (ADI), the tool used to develop thousands of health interventions and policies aimed at achieving better health outcomes for people living in rural and urban neighborhoods with greatest need; demonstrated an association between neighborhood disadvantage, as measured by the ADI, and increased odds of neurodegeneration, ADRD biomarkers and post-mortem ADRD neuropathology; and linked residency in high ADI neighborhoods across one’s lifetime with increased risk of neurodegeneration and brain disease.
“The Neighborhoods Study’s impact demonstrates how health for millions of people across the country is being improved by research happening right here at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. It’s a shining example of the Wisconsin Idea at work,” said Nita Ahuja, MD, MBA, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and vice chancellor for medical affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Neighborhoods Study is the largest research study of its kind to explore how social and environmental factors influence ADRD risk and outcomes by linking lifelong exposures to brain tissue.
The Neighborhoods Study is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AG070883. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.