# Educational and Early Life Predictors of Mild Cognitive Impairment: New Evidence about Mediators and Moderators from High School & Beyond

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2021 · $7,534,484

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This competing revision adds a venous blood component to the fieldwork protocols for the 2021-2022 follow-up
of the High School and Beyond (HSB) cohort. HSB is a nationally representative and diverse sample of 26,820
Americans who have been followed since they were high school students in 1980 with exceptionally high rates
of retention. Adding the collection of venous blood to our already funded survey, genomic, microbiome, and
administrative data collection plans has massive potential to revolutionize understanding of the risk and
resilience factors that shape cognitive impairment. The resulting HSB biomarker data and biorepository will
enable transformative and highly innovative research on the life course social and biological forces that intersect
to shape the evolution of cognitive impairment and AD/ADRD over the life course. HSB will become the first
cohort study with the requisite social, biological, and cognitive measures that has followed a large, nationally
representative and racially/ethnically diverse sample of Americans from adolescence through middle age.
This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading neurologists, sociologists, education scientists,
neuropathologists, and survey methodologists who in 2021-2022 will re-contact all 25,517 surviving members of
the HSB cohort and use the resulting survey, genomic, microbiome, and administrative data to conduct
transformative analyses of the effects of education and early life conditions on cognitive function and risk for
impairment at midlife. This competing revision proposal has three aims: (Aim 1) Obtain samples of whole blood,
plasma, and serum from the entire HSB Cohort in 2021-2022. (Aim 2) Conduct assays most useful for research
on cognitive impairment and AD/ADRD and store the rest of the blood for future assays. (Aim 3) Disseminate
biomarker data and facilitate access to the HSB Biorepository.
By adding biomarkers of neuropathology found in blood, HSB will become vastly more useful for studying the
risk and resilience factors that shape the evolution of cognitive impairment and AD/ADRD. Neuropathologies are
already accumulating in the brain by middle-age. While some people with neuropathologies will go on to develop
cognitive impairments or dementias, others will remain cognitively resilient into old age. HSB data collected
between 1980 and 2021-2022 will provide a wealth of prospectively measured indicators of the educational,
social, and other forces from adolescence through midlife that may promote cognitive resilience to
neuropathology. These forces may also affect the accumulation of neuropathology in the first place. In either
case, measuring the degree of blood-based neuropathology at this stage of sample members’ lives is critical.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10119727
- **Project number:** 3R01AG058719-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** John Robert Warren
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $7,534,484
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-05-15 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10119727

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10119727, Educational and Early Life Predictors of Mild Cognitive Impairment: New Evidence about Mediators and Moderators from High School & Beyond (3R01AG058719-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10119727. Licensed CC0.

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