# Effects of Early-Life and Lifetime Neighborhood Exposures on Cognitive Decline and Dementia

> **NIH NIH K99** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2021 · $91,297

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The aim of the proposed research is to provide necessary training and research experience to facilitate the PI’s
transition to an independent researcher in the field of life course research on Alzheimer’s disease and related
dementias (ADRD). The PI is a social demographer with specialization in life course health and neighborhood
research. The proposed training will advance the PI’s understanding of the role of neighborhoods in shaping
cognition over the life course and provide training in (1) spatial science, (2) biology of aging, (3) risk-resilience
model, and (4) causal inference modeling that will add essential skills and knowledge to her existing toolkit.
 Early-life neighborhood adversity is a strong predictor of poor cognition, but prior research examining this
link is mostly limited to studies of younger populations. Much less is known about the lifelong implications of
early-life neighborhood contexts for cognitive outcomes in older adults. Early-life exposure to neighborhood
adversity may be a source of stress eliciting biological and psychosocial processes that impact cognition. The
proposed research is highly significant and innovative because it (1) advances understanding of the
relationships between early-life neighborhoods and cognition in older adults, (2) investigates biological risk and
psychosocial resilience pathways explaining this link, and (3) examines cumulative neighborhood effects on
cognitive aging over the life course.
 The proposed research will leverage recent linkages between the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and
the 1940 Census. This data linkage provides a novel opportunity to develop new neighborhood-based
measures of early-life adversity such as exposure to crime, water-borne lead and residential segregation by
linking to other historical contextual datasets. These new measures will advance existing literature on early
origins of ADRD which has primarily focused on individual-level socioeconomic status as key early-life risk
factors. As part of data sharing plan, these measures will be available to the user community to allow analysis
of early-life neighborhoods on later-life health outcomes. Taking advantage of residential histories available in
the HRS, the proposed research will create cumulative exposure to neighborhood adversity covering
respondents’ entire lifetime. The HRS also has all the other characteristics to study key concepts proposed in
this proposal including physiological dysregulation, psychosocial resilience, and cognition/dementia.
 The PI will achieve these research objectives and training at the University of Southern California (USC).
USC is an ideal location as there are ample intellectual and structural resources, training opportunities, and
mentors for researchers in cognitive aging, neighborhoods and the life course, and psychophysiology. The new
proficiencies will prepare the PI to write an R01 to examine gender and racial differences in the effect of ear...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10191206
- **Project number:** 1K99AG071834-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Haena Lee
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $91,297
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10191206

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10191206, Effects of Early-Life and Lifetime Neighborhood Exposures on Cognitive Decline and Dementia (1K99AG071834-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10191206. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*