# Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Alzheimer's Disease Link with Heart Disease and Stroke

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA · 2023 · $157,212

## Abstract

Abstract:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the major subtype of dementia, which accounts for 60-80% of dementia cases in
the United States (US). With the increased life expectancy in developed countries, AD is becoming a major
issue at the late stage of life. Heart disease and stroke events are another two growing issues among the
elderly population. There is an expanding body of literature implicating heart disease and stroke as risk factors
for AD, highlighting significant pathways at the cellular level. However, further research is needed on the
association between heart, stroke, and development of AD to improve our understanding of epidemiological
features of this link, which could lead us to identify high-risk subgroups who potentially disadvantaged from
such dependencies. Hawaii's population is one of the most diverse ethnic populations in the US and there exist
significant racial/ethnic health disparities in this multiethnic population. Especially, Native Hawaiians and
Pacific Islanders (NHPI) are a well-known high-risk group for many disease conditions, including
cardiovascular conditions and stroke. Links between heart dysfunction and stroke on developing AD makes
NHPI potentially a high-risk group for AD. We propose a study to explore the AD risk for patients age 65 and
above those who had major heart events and stroke, based on the Hawaii Medicare database. The proposed
work will be conducted under a time-to-event multistate model framework while accounting for competing risks
for acquiring unbiassed estimations and inferencing. Nine years of Hawaii Medicare data from 2009 to 2017
will be utilized to gather important time-to-event details for the proposed work, which allows us to conduct
comprehensive time-to-event analyses on several aspects: progression from heart disease or stroke to AD; AD
mortality; heart disease and stroke risks for AD. A key feature of the proposed study is the investigation of
racial/ethnic dependency on AD, heart disease, and stroke links. We also propose to develop machine
learning-driven predictive models for predicting transitions and mortality based on subject profiles.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10558653
- **Project number:** 5R03AG075034-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA
- **Principal Investigator:** Chathura Siriwardhana
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $157,212
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-02-01 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10558653

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10558653, Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Alzheimer's Disease Link with Heart Disease and Stroke (5R03AG075034-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10558653. Licensed CC0.

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