# Evaluation of college accessibility and income security interventions as preventative measures for dementia risk and solutions to dementia disparities

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $622,373

## Abstract

ABSTRACT. Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) are leading causes of death in the United
States that disproportionately impact individuals with less education and income. There is substantial evidence
that ADRD is strongly patterned by socioeconomic status across the lifecourse. However, little prior work has
evaluated whether socioeconomic interventions to increase socioeconomic status reduce the population burden
of ADRD, or if there are differentially effects by sociodemographic subgroup, resulting in smaller disparities; this
proposal addresses this critical gap in the literature. We evaluate socioeconomic interventions that increased
years of education (Aim 1) and income security (Aim 2) to determine if such interventions impacted dementia
risk overall, and whether structurally minoritized groups (Black Americans, individuals from low childhood SES
backgrounds, and people who grew up in rural areas or the South) differentially benefited (Aim 3). We will use
data from Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke
cohort (REGARDS), and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort to evaluate these aims. Our
research team has previously published using all three data sets. Aim 1 will evaluate whether expansion of
college access reduced ADRD risk; hypothesis 1 evaluates college geographic accessibility via increases in 2
and 4-year higher education institutions per capita, while hypothesis 2 evaluates college financial accessibility
via a large social intervention that subsidized college education (the Vietnam War GI Bill). Aim 2 will evaluate
whether policies that increased income security reduced ADRD risk; hypothesis 1 evaluates the long-term effects
of a working age poverty-alleviation policy (the earned income tax credit), while hypothesis 2 evaluates
retirement income security (Social Security). Aim 3 will evaluate whether the education and income security
interventions examined in Aims 1 and 2 reduced socioeconomic, racial, and geographic disparities in ADRD;
differential effects will be evaluated using interaction terms, quantile regression, and distributional
decomposition. If our hypotheses are confirmed, results from this research will provide direct evidence for
solutions to reduce the future population burden of ADRD and disparities in ADRD. Our work can also inform
targeting of interventions to those who benefit most. This research will provide immediately actionable evidence,
because the interventions we evaluate are specific and feasible.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10054598
- **Project number:** 1R01AG069092-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Anusha Murthy Vable
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $622,373
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10054598

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10054598, Evaluation of college accessibility and income security interventions as preventative measures for dementia risk and solutions to dementia disparities (1R01AG069092-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10054598. Licensed CC0.

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