# Contribution of Contextual Factors and Neuropathology to Dementia

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA · 2022 · $37,031

## Abstract

Dementia is one of the leading causes of death globally, yet there are still no known preventions, treatments, or
cures. The prevalence of dementia has increased over the past two decades and dementia is a major
contributor to poor late-life quality of life and to high health care costs. Although the biological mechanisms
thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been identified, these biological factors do not always
align with a clinical diagnosis of dementia. Several individual-level contextual factors are known to reduce the
risk of dementia onset, although the mechanism by which these factors modify dementia onset, and how they
combine with underlying neuropathology, remains unknown. Further, it is unknown how macro-level contextual
factors (i.e., broader societal-level factors) may influence the association between neuropathology and
dementia. The proposed project will address these gaps by assessing how individual- and macro-level
contextual factors interact with neuropathology resulting in dementia. The proposed project will be a secondary
data analysis of prospective cohort studies. Data will be pooled from four longitudinal cohort studies (the
Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, the Czech Brain Aging Study, the Older Australian Twins Study,
the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study) through data harmonization, which will increase sample size for
advanced analyses. Latent profiles will be estimated based on markers of neuropathology to assess how these
profiles combine with contextual factors to affect dementia risk. Assessment of how individual-level contextual
factors (e.g., education, occupation) and neuropathology are independently and interdependently related to
dementia will occur. Data linking will occur to merge macro-level factors from the WHO, World Inequality, and
OECD iLibrary Databases with the harmonized dataset to assess how macro-level contextual factors (e.g.,
GDP, retirement policies, societal-level education/leisure activity, or markers of inequality) and neuropathology
are independently and interdependently related to dementia. The proposed project represents an expansion of
existing research by incorporating thorough measures of biological and contextual factors that can influence
dementia as well as by examining independent and interactive effects of individual- and macro-level contextual
factors with markers of neuropathology. The central hypothesis is that contextual factors will modify the
association between neuropathology and dementia. Findings from the proposed project will inform
understanding of the relationship between contextual and biological factors that contribute to dementia, can be
used to inform policy and public health outreach, and create targeted interventions to delay dementia onset.
The PI will be supported by the mentorship of experts in theories of neurocognitive aging, clinical criteria of
dementia, and relevant statistical methodology, in a training environment that will bolst...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10461653
- **Project number:** 1F31AG077865-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Monica Elizabeth Walters
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $37,031
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-12-21 → 2023-08-04

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10461653

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10461653, Contribution of Contextual Factors and Neuropathology to Dementia (1F31AG077865-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10461653. Licensed CC0.

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