# Culturally relevant contributors to cognitive and MRI changes in older Latinos

> **NIH NIH R01** · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $755,417

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Latinos are one of the fastest growing minority populations in the US, and they are 1.5 times as likely to
develop Alzheimer’s dementia as older non-Latino Whites. Culturally relevant factors such as acculturation, the
process by which Latinos adapt to the US and potentially adopt its values and practices, may contribute to
health disparities in brain aging and Alzheimer’s dementia in Latinos. While levels of acculturation have been
linked to a number of health outcomes in Latinos, less work has been done in cognition and brain aging. Newer
theories of acculturation suggest it is not a static, linear process but a dynamic exchange between Latinos and
other members of society that emerges from and is reinforced by broader socioenvironmental determinants
vital to a process now called ‘acculturation in context’ (AIC). Thus, in addition to traditional acculturation factors
(e.g., language preference and/or years in the US), individual-level (e.g., perceived discrimination, family
and/or cultural stressors) and neighborhood-level (e.g., crime rates) socioenvironmental determinants need to
be integrated into research in older Latinos. We will incorporate advances in geospatial informatics to quantify
neighborhood-level determinants of AIC, longitudinal multi-modal neuroimaging, and the digital capture of
behavior in a well-characterized cohort of Latinos 60 years and older for the most comprehensive study of AIC
as it relates to brain aging in Latinos. By 2030, the Latino population 65 and older will increase by ~225%
compared to a 65% increase in non-Latino Whites; rates for Alzheimer’s dementias will also disproportionately
increase for older Latinos. This R01, with its focus on AIC and brain aging in Latinos, may provide a more
comprehensive understanding of the reasons for this disproportionate increase.
 To achieve the overall goal of the study – to investigate the relationship of AIC to changes in cognition and
brain MRI indices in older Latinos and determine whether these factors affect the well-documented
relationships between other risk factors and changes in cognition or brain MRI indices – we will conduct a
comprehensive assessment of the AIC framework including the geocoding of neighborhood factors, repeat
multi-modal MRI, and the digital capture of behavior in 350 older Latinos. We will leverage the infrastructure of
two cohort studies at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center to incorporate ongoing longitudinal data acquisition
of cognition and other risk factors into this R01. When combined, this information will allow us to examine the
relationship of AIC to change in cognition (Aim 1) and brain MRI indices (Aim 2) in older Latinos, and
determine if levels of AIC modify the relationship of cardiovascular disease risk factor profiles to changes in
cognition or brain MRI indices in this same population (Aim 3). Given that rates of Alzheimer’s dementia are
disproportionately increasing for Latinos in the US, understa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10078229
- **Project number:** 5R01AG062711-02
- **Recipient organization:** RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Melissa Lamar
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $755,417
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2024-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10078229

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10078229, Culturally relevant contributors to cognitive and MRI changes in older Latinos (5R01AG062711-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10078229. Licensed CC0.

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