Brain Health and Ethnic Disparities in ADRD Risk: The Case of Arab Americans

Project Summary
Brain Health and Ethnic Disparities in ADRD Risk: The Case of Arab Americans
The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) is higher in Black Americans and
Hispanics than in non-Hispanic Whites, but data on Arab Americans have been virtually absent from research
on brain and cognitive aging. The unique experiences of this understudied group have the potential to clarify
knowledge of ADRD disparities related to ethnicity, immigrant and social factors. The proposed project
leverages the first prevalence study of ADRD among Arab Americans (AG057510) to examine brain
mechanisms underlying links between sociocultural risk/protective factors and ADRD. The purpose of this
research is to investigate the links between immigrant/cultural factors, brain health, and clinical outcomes
related to ADRD. The following specific aims will be accomplished by obtaining structural MRI and blood-based
AD biomarker data in the Detroit-Aging and Memory Project (D-AMP), which obtains high-quality ADRD
phenotypes and genetic data on those aged 65+ from a representative sample of 600 Arab Americans, as well
as panel participants (N=298) from the Social Relations Study (SRS), to compare to samples of non-Arab
Whites in the same geographic area. Our specific aims are:
1) Quantify differences in brain aging among Arab Americans and Whites in metro-Detroit and determine
the contribution of brain health to group differences in ADRD;
2) Determine the contribution of immigrant/cultural factors (e.g., national origin, age of migration) to brain
aging among Arab Americans;
3) Characterize the influence of social relations on brain and cognitive aging among Arab Americans and
Whites.
The proposed study benefits from exceptional circumstances, leveraging a uniquely available sample and data,
to characterize, for the first time, neuroimaging and blood-based AD biomarkers among older Arab Americans.
This knowledge is critical for the development and evaluation of prevention and intervention strategies, as well
as the cultural tailoring of such efforts to ensure efficacy in different sociocultural groups in order to eliminate
disparities.

Grant Number: 5R01AG070951-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: TONI ANTONUCCI