# Measurement and Analysis of Aging, Cognition and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) Risk Factors at Midlife in the Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2024 · $741,520

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease is severely under-studied in Sub-Saharan Africa: the few existing estimates suggest that
prevalence is currently low but changing risk factors predict that it could double in the next 20 years. We
propose to study risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) in the Kenya Life
Panel Survey (KLPS), a unique, richly phenotyped cohort of Kenyan adults who have been followed since
childhood, and who were participants in a randomized child health intervention (school-based deworming). The
existing dataset contains information on health, cognition, educational, demographic, social attitudes, and labor
market outcomes for over 6,500 Kenyans first surveyed in 1998 (at ages 8-15) through 2021 (ages 31-39).
KLPS thus provides an unusual opportunity to study cognition, and the determinants of AD/ADRD and related
risk factors, over the life course, with direct measurement during childhood, young adulthood, and midlife.
This project proposes an additional field interview in the KLPS Round 5 Aging Module (KLPS-5A) to collect
detailed “midlife baseline” cognition and aging-related health data, as well as information on AD/ADRD risk
factors, among participants, who will be 35 to 43 years old at the time of survey. One novel aspect is the ability
to link these midlife measures to rich existing longitudinal data from childhood and early adulthood, including
cognitive assessments (achievement and cognitive test scores), as well as educational outcomes, health
status and behaviors, and economic outcomes (e.g., earnings, migration, occupational complexity) collected
contemporaneously rather than via recall in later life. By combining state-of-the-art cognitive measures at this
new midlife timepoint with the extensive cognitive measures and exposures already collected, we hope to
establish KLPS as the premier African study of life-course dementia determinants. There are very few surveys
globally that include such detailed data from childhood to old age, and these data would open up multiple
avenues for investigating dementias tied to life-course disadvantages. We will make all data publicly available
to researchers across disciplines.
Another notable feature is the ability to utilize experimental variation from a randomized child health
intervention that has been documented to meaningfully affect adult living standards and several risk factors for
dementia, to better understand pathways over the life course and the scope for public health interventions to
reduce AD/ADRD risk. The Primary School Deworming Program provided deworming medication to
randomly-selected schools starting in 1998 in a region with high worm prevalence (>90%): 10 to 20 years after
treatment, the intervention had positive effects on self-reported health, educational attainment; adult living
standards; urban residential status, and occupation in the non-agricultural sector. This setting offers an unusual
opportunity to experimental...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10840925
- **Project number:** 5R01AG077001-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** EDWARD ANDREW MIGUEL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $741,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-05-15 → 2027-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10840925

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10840925, Measurement and Analysis of Aging, Cognition and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) Risk Factors at Midlife in the Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS) (5R01AG077001-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10840925. Licensed CC0.

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