# Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $4,846,194

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Black/African Americans have the highest rate of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the United States
but evidence on risk and resiliency factors for ADRD is based almost exclusively on non-Hispanic Whites. The Study of
Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR) was initiated in 2017 (RF1AG050782) as a lifecourse cohort study of
cognitive ageing in middle aged and elderly Black individuals who are long-term members of Kaiser Permanente
Northern California. Recently established, STAR is one of the largest all Black cohort studies with prospective clinical,
lifestyle, and behavioral data from 1960s - present. Cycle 1of STAR accomplished key goals including commencement of
the cohort and enrollment of 764 Black individuals (mean age 69, range 53-95; 66% female) with 3 research visits
approximately 15 months apart. All waves included an extensive neuropsychology battery along with survey collection of
psychosocial factors, stress, discrimination, occupation, and an array of health, behavioral and functional measures, 233
participants had a brain MRI. STAR Cycle 1 has contributed key findings about cognitive aging in the Black population
and set up an unprecedented infrastructure enabling linkage of early-life data and medical records to investigate predictors
of cognitive decline, neurodegeneration and vascular injury. STAR participants display a wide array of life experiences
and resiliency: 47% attended college, 80% reporting everyday discrimination, 57% with mothers < high school education,
28% financial problems in childhood while 4% in adulthood, 39% attended segregated schools, and 36% had >1
cardiovascular risk factor in young adulthood. Key findings from Cycle 1 include: 1) school segregation and timing of
desegregation is associated with differences in late-life cognition; 2) hypertension, obesity, and hyperlipidemia in
adolescence, young adulthood, and midlife are associated with poorer cognitive performance and more vascular brain
injury; 3) birth in a stroke-belt state is associated with poorer cognitive function; 4) parental education and childhood
socioeconomic status are associated with cognitive performance; and 5) attending a school with mostly Black students is
associated with lower depressive symptoms in later life. The establishment of STAR in Cycle 1 sets the infrastructure for
an unprecedented continuing study of the transition to ADRD and identification of lifetime factors that can reduce risk of
cognitive impairment in Black older adults. In this completive renewal for Cycle 2 of STAR our aims are: Aim 1a: Enroll
an additional 400 individuals into STAR to determine age and sex-specific incident ADRD and domain specific cognitive
decline in a cohort of Black individuals. Aim1b: Evaluate lifecourse risk and protective factors of ADRD and cognitive
decline in this cohort. Aim 2: Collect blood-based biomarkers consistent with the ATN framework (Aβ 42/40, total Tau
and phosphoTau-181, neurofilament l...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10906197
- **Project number:** 5R01AG050782-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Paola Gilsanz
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $4,846,194
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-01-01 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10906197

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10906197, Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (5R01AG050782-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10906197. Licensed CC0.

---

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