# Early Life War Experiences and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

> **NIH NIH R01** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2021 · $316,673

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The primary goal of this administrative supplement is to collect necessary data and conduct
data analysis in order to expand understanding of early life exposures to armed conflict as they
influence risks for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The focus of the
administrative supplement is the creation of data for measuring ADRD and analyzing ADRD risk
factors among a subsample of the Vietnam Health and Aging Study (VHAS), an ongoing
longitudinal study of 2,447 older adult survivors of the American War residing in four districts of
northern Vietnam. The study team will assess ADRD through a cognitive performance test
instrument, the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSI-D), which has been
validated widely in low-middle income contexts. The CSI-D, which involves both cognitive
testing for the respondent and an informant interview with a close family member, will be subject
to validation in the VHAS setting. In addition to the CSI-D, using whole blood samples slated for
collection during the second wave of VHAS, the project supplement will collect and assay
homocysteine and a blood-based biomarker diagnostic panel for ADRD adapted from O’Bryant
et al. The parent study, which funds Wave I data collected in 2018 and Wave II collection
scheduled for 2021, provides detailed, longitudinal data on myriad risk factors for ADRD that
have been identified in other, largely western populations, namely severe psychological
stressors of war; dioxin exposure due to widespread spraying of Agent Orange and other
chemical defoliants across Vietnam; and experience of adverse conditions during childhood and
young adulthood, including severe food shortage and community-level bombing exposure.
The scope of work within the proposed supplement is to create additional data on nutritional
intake, to obtain assays of the ADRD biomarker homocysteine and a 10-analyte ADRD
biomarker panel, and to perform analyses which explore war-related stressors as they influence
cognitive functioning and ADRD risk. Armed conflict has been most pervasive in developing
countries like Vietnam, where the population both moving into old age and having directly
experienced war is growing rapidly, but where we have virtually no knowledge of the long-term
effects of war exposure on ADRD. This study directs attention toward war as it may contribute to
or detract from healthy aging, especially neurodegenerative diseases like ADRD which impose
heavy burdens upon healthcare and caregiving institutions in low-middle income countries.
To meet our administrative supplement study goals, we will: a) create and implement a
supplementary survey module which examines ADRD as assessed by the CSI-D within a
subset of 450 members of the VHAS, selected according to a random quota sampling method
that yields significant statistical power for assessing ADRD across levels of war stress
exposure; b) perform assays of homocysteine and a ADRD biomarker panel using whole blood
sa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10289646
- **Project number:** 3R01AG052537-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** Kim Korinek
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $316,673
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10289646

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10289646, Early Life War Experiences and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (3R01AG052537-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10289646. Licensed CC0.

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