Stroke has the largest racial disparity of any chronic disease, Geographic disparities also exist, and the magnitude of both disparities is increasing. Alarmingly, REGARDS has documented racial and geographic disparities in cognitive decline that are of the same magnitude as for stroke. A lack of understanding of the causes of these disparities has contributed directly to the failure to reduce or eliminate them. REGARDS is a national cohort of 30,239 black and white community-dwelling participants aged 45+ when enrolled in 2003-2007. We propose to utilize the cohort to build on findings to date and extend our findings to evaluate new hypotheses. REGARDS is positioned to document disparities in incidence of stroke and cognitive impairment and also to understand why these disparities exist. We propose to conduct a second in-person evaluation to define incidence and progression of stroke risk factors. We will continue stroke ascertainment to double the number of stroke events and improve our ability to define factors contributing to the as yet unexplained stroke disparities. By continuing cognitive assessments, and adding more sensitive in-person measures of cognitive function, and instrumental activities of daily living, we will advance the understanding of causes and clinical relevance of disparities in cognitive decline. We propose the following specific aims:
Specific Aim #1 : to quantify incidence of, and change in severity of stroke risk factors over 9 years of follow-up, and to establish causes for racial and geographic disparities in these risk factors.
Specific Aim #2 : to evaluate three pathways that may account for unexplained disparities: a) differential impact of risk factors where the same change in risk factor increases risk more for one race than the other, b) residual confounding from incomplete characterization of risk factors, and c) novel stroke risk factors including psychosocial and behavioral factors.
Specific Aim #3 : Measure the functional impact of cognitive impairment, estimate the prevalence and incidence of cognitive impairment over 10 years of follow-up, and account for racial disparities in cognition attributable to literacy by gathering new information on functional performance and word reading ability.

Public Health Relevance

Estimates suggest that the racial and geographic disparities in stroke are associated with over 20,000 'extra' stroke events annually, with an estimated cost per stroke of $140,000; hence, the public health burden of these disparities is in excess of $6 billion dollars annually. If this research provides insights that would contribute to a 10% reduction in the magnitude of these disparities, the entire 5-year cost of this application would be recouped in savings in less than 16 days (a savings that would reoccur each 16 days). Our previous work in REGARDS has documented similar racial and geographic disparities in cognitive function, and these disparities in cognitive function will have similar public health ramifications with the 'graying of America.'

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project--Cooperative Agreements (U01)
Project #
5U01NS041588-14
Application #
8789180
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-PSE-P (02))
Program Officer
Odenkirchen, Joanne
Project Start
2001-09-24
Project End
2017-11-30
Budget Start
2014-12-01
Budget End
2015-11-30
Support Year
14
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$5,251,259
Indirect Cost
$664,770
Name
University of Alabama Birmingham
Department
Biostatistics & Other Math Sci
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
063690705
City
Birmingham
State
AL
Country
United States
Zip Code
35294
Cheung, K L; Zakai, N A; Callas, P W et al. (2018) Mechanisms and mitigating factors for venous thromboembolism in chronic kidney disease: the REGARDS study. J Thromb Haemost 16:1743-1752
Gillett, S R; McClure, L A; Callas, P W et al. (2018) Hemostasis biomarkers and incident cognitive impairment: the REGARDS study. J Thromb Haemost 16:1259-1267
Akinyemiju, Tomi; Moore, Justin Xavier; Judd, Suzanne E et al. (2018) Pre-diagnostic biomarkers of metabolic dysregulation and cancer mortality. Oncotarget 9:16099-16109
Navarro-Millán, Iris; Gamboa, Christopher M; Curtis, Jeffrey R et al. (2018) Lipid management among individuals with inflammatory arthritis in the national REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort. J Int Med Res 46:62-69
Loop, Matthew Shane; McClure, Leslie A; Levitan, Emily B et al. (2018) Fine particulate matter and incident coronary heart disease in the REGARDS cohort. Am Heart J 197:94-102
Zakai, Neil A; Judd, Suzanne E; Kissela, Brett et al. (2018) Factor VIII, Protein C and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study (REGARDS). Thromb Haemost 118:1305-1315
Moore, Justin Xavier; Akinyemiju, Tomi; Bartolucci, Alfred et al. (2018) Mediating Effects of Frailty Indicators on the Risk of Sepsis After Cancer. J Intensive Care Med :885066618779941
Hsu, Joann; Donnelly, John P; Chaudhary, Ninad S et al. (2018) Aspirin use and long-term rates of sepsis: A population-based cohort study. PLoS One 13:e0194829
Chen, Cheng; Xun, Pengcheng; McClure, Leslie A et al. (2018) Serum mercury concentration and the risk of ischemic stroke: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Trace Element Study. Environ Int 117:125-131
Garg, Parveen K; O'Neal, Wesley T; Ogunsua, Adedotun et al. (2018) Usefulness of the American Heart Association's Life Simple 7 to Predict the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation (from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke [REGARDS] Study). Am J Cardiol 121:199-204

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